Pac-12 labeled "fairly toxic" as Washington finally breaks silence on its decision to relocate in latest conference realignment

The Pac-12 has seen 10 of its 12 member schools leave, and now the Washington Huskies have come out to explain their decision.

The Pac-12 was one of the premier conferences in college football, but several schools left as its media rights deal was up.

After Stanford and Cal were the latest teams to leave, the conference only has Washington State and Oregon State. It was disappointing news for many, but University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce recently spoke out on the school's decision to join the Big Ten and took aim at the Pac-12.

Cauce said that Washington decided to leave the conference because the Pac-12 was on "life support." She said there was no trust, and the situation had become "fairly toxic."

"Change is always difficult, but I’ll be honest … some of our biggest, biggest supporters said, ‘thank you so much.’ It’s been generally very positive. I understand tradition," president Ana Mari Cauce told the Huskies insider Christian Caple.

"I understand loyalty. But I also understand the need for change. We did not leave the Pac-12 that people are grieving. We left the Pac-12 that was, at best, on life support. And it was fairly toxic, because there was no trust. There was constant gossip & leaks. That last year was really tough on everybody,” Cauce said.

It is an interesting quote, as initially, the Pac-12 had only lost USC and UCLA to the Big Ten before the other schools left. However, Washington appears to think that the conference wouldn't last.

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Will the Pac-12 survive?

As Washington's president seemed to think that the Pac-12 wouldn't survive, commissioner George Kliavkoff was adamant it would.

However, after Stanford and Cal left the conference, the future of the Pac-12 doesn't look good. Oregon State and Washington State have met with the Mountain West Conference to potentially join them.

But the Pac-12 would have two years to try and get six more schools and bring the total back up to eight schools to remain a conference. If that is the plan, OSU and WSU could schedule their games for two years and see if the Pac-12 can remain a conference.

For now, OSU and WSU will play out this season with the Pac-12 and haven't announced when they will decide. But if they do join the MWC, the Pac-12 will officially be dead.