2 conferences emerge as hotspots for Pac-12 merger amid failed expansion and media deal attempts: Reports

The Pac-12 could be looking to merge with another conference. After eight of the 12 schools from the Pac-12 announced their departure, the future of the conference appears murky.

Commissioner George Klivakoff is adamant that the conference will survive. However, according to CFB reporter Jim Williams, the Pac-12 expansion has failed, and that its hope to survive is to either merge with the Mountain West Conference or the American Athletic Conference.

"Expanding the PAC 4 or merging with either the American or Mountain depends Stanford. That puts @OregonState & @WSUCougarFB in a holding pattern. Meanwhile potential candidates for expansion are not rushing to talk the PAC about their future because there's way too many questions than answers," Williams tweeted.

As per Williams, with there being too many unanswered questions about the Pac-12, schools don't want to jump ship and join the conference. Instead, merging with the MWC or AAC makes sense, something many insiders expect to happen.

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MWC open to merging with Pac-12

The MWC has made it clear that the conference is open to merging with the Pac-12.

MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez recently spoke to ESPN and said that she's open to merging with the Pac-12. At the moment, though, it's still early days.

"A lot of it is just trying to sort fact from fiction out there," Nevarez said. "There's just so much information about what's going on, and not all of it is true. From my perspective, it's been a matter of connecting with our athletic directors and presidents and contacts that I have in the industry to try to provide our board the best information out there...

"We're open to everything. Nothing is being shut down at this point."

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Is AAC interested in a merger with Pac-12?

The AAC has talked about landing the final four Pac-12 schools, but the hope is to simply add them to the AAC and not merge with the Pac-12.

One source told Eric Prisbell of On3 Sports that the AAC reckons they're a good landing spot due to their media rights deal with ESPN.

“We would be a good landing spot for those schools, given our existing ESPN deal, which has a strong linear component, along with our major cities and institutional profiles.”

With the AAC not wanting to merge, but rather take the four Pac-12 schools, what happens next remains to be seen.