The Colorado Buffaloes left the Big 12 to help form the Pac-12 last year because the school had a larger alumni base out West, recruited in California and they have more in common with the other schools compared to the Big 12. Plus, it did not hurt to have equal revenue sharing.
Now with the reports that the Pac-16 is potentially in play once again, Colorado president Bruce Benson has come out against the idea of the Pac-12 adding more teams:
"One of the reasons - and there are a lot of reasons - we got in the Pac 12 is to play regularly on the West Coast," Benson said. "When I hear things like East-West divisions, we're going back to the Big 12 again. I don't know who's possibly going, but I sure don't want to get shorted out of the West Coast."
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"That's kind of how I look at it," Benson said. "I just don't want to change this dynamic. Every year we're in Northern and Southern California. We want that. Every year we're in Arizona. We want that. We're in Washington. We want that."
That makes a lot of sense, because Colorado would be back where it was when they were part of the Big 12 if Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech do create a Pac-16. Colorado would be in a division with those schools alongside Utah and the two Arizona schools and have limited access to California and the West Coast.
The Pac-12 may try to hold off as long as they can in regarding future expansion options, but if the SEC and Big 10 go beyond 14 teams the Pac-12 may not have much of a choice but to expand.