If Memphis is invited to the Pac-12, the Tigers should pack their bags and move on from the AAC.

Shortly after Oregon State and Washington State committed last week to reinvent the Pac-12 from four Mountain West members, OSU athletic director Scott Barnes said he envisioned the conference adding at least two more institutions “as soon as possible.” Just five days later, longtime Portland-based columnist John Canzano is reporting that Memphis and Tulane have “emerged as the Pac-12's top targets as the conference prepares to take a second bite at the expansion apple.”

So here we go.

Needless to say, there are currently more questions than answers about this potential marriage — from exactly how much it will cost schools to leave the AAC, to when they can officially join the Pac-12, and just how much increased travel athletic departments and those operating between them will have. Each will bear a toll. Nothing is a done deal, and it shouldn't be.

There are many to choose from.

According to Canzano, Pac-12 leaders will meet later this week to thoroughly discuss all options; I'm sure the officials at Memphis and Tulane are doing the same. If people on both sides decide such a move doesn't make financial sense, it's probably not a move worth making. But as long as by doing Makes sense financially, and I'm inclined to believe it will for everyone involved, it's clear to me that it's time for Memphis and Tulane to become new members of the Pac-12, geography be damned.

I've thought about this a lot — especially from a Memphis perspective, mostly because the University of Memphis is my alma mater, and the Memphis area is where I still make my home. When the school was first identified as a potential Pac-12 target last week, I kept an open mind and asked anyone who has obvious reasons to go but also potential reasons to pass — most notably that there's a plausible scenario where the ACC is in the coming years. Lose some big brands and need replacements, at which point Memphis could emerge as a prime target and reconnect with former league foes like Louisville, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in a conference that will be weakened, sure. , but still probably superior to the Pac-12 (not to mention a better geographic fit). Arguably, it would be a real shame for Memphis to pay millions of dollars to get out of the AAC, enter into a long-term deal with the Pac-12 and be more or less stuck there if the ACC ever comes calling.

This is definitely something to consider.

That is definitely something I have considered.

But, after considering it, I couldn't help but remember that I was the one who attended the Big East meeting in 2003, as a young journalist. Commercial appeal In Memphis, because the Big East was on the verge of losing members to the ACC, and there was some sense that maybe, just maybe, Memphis would emerge as a replacement candidate and be given a chance to upgrade leagues.

Obviously, that didn't happen.

And that was more than 20 years ago!

My point is, for most of the last two decades, Memphis fans have just waited and waited and waited for good news on the conference front and have always been disappointed — except for one time in February 2012, when the good news finally seemed to officially arrive for Memphis in the form of the Big East. Adding as an All-Sports member. But just 10 months later, before Memphis even competed in the Big East, the conference's seven non-FBS schools — DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova — voted to secede from the Big East's football-playing schools, leaving the Dream. died and forced Memphis into a new league called the American Athletic Conference, where the Tigers initially competed against Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn, SMU, Houston, Rutgers, Temple. UCF and South Florida.

Was that theoretically as exciting as the Big East?

No.

But the Americans were a clear upgrade from the Tigers' previous league (Conference USA), as it was a league that featured old rivals Louisville and Cincinnati, an emerging football program at UCF, and historically strong basketball schools like UConn and Houston. The problem is, of the 10 original AAC members, seven have since moved on to better circumstances. UCF, Cincinnati and Houston are now in the Big 12, Louisville and SMU are in the ACC, UConn is in the Big East and Rutgers calls the Big Ten home.

Only Memphis, Temple and USF remain.

In other words, the neighborhoods Memphis lives in have deteriorated dramatically over the past 12 years. Attendance has been an issue in recent seasons, even though the Tigers have made 10 straight bowl games in football and two of the past three NCAA Tournament appearances in men's basketball, as it's hard to get fans excited about home games against the East. Carolina, Rice, Tulsa and Charlotte grew up watching their schools compete against more recognized and comparable brands.

To be clear, the invitation to the new Pac-12 won't be as great as the Big 12's invitation for Memphis back when that league took on BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF — and there's no reason to think it's the Tigers' power-conference. will get the label they've been chasing forever. Barring a surprise, it won't turn Power 4 back into Power 5. No one will be confused or confused about it.

But do you know what the new Pac-12 will be?

Better than Americans!

And that's really the main thing that matters to Memphis officials as they weigh the pros and cons of accepting a proposal if it's extended. Again, I understand the argument that moving to the ACC might be better than moving to the Pac-12 right now. But after thinking about it from every angle, I've come to the conclusion that it would be a mistake for Memphis to pass on an obvious conference-upgrade in hopes that a bigger and better conference might someday approach it.

Most Memphis fans are tired of waiting for something that never happened.

It's time for the Tigers to take what they can get. The SEC and Big Ten were never alternatives. The Big 12 has surpassed them a thousand times. ACC may call someday but there is no guarantee that it will happen.

That leaves the Pac-12 as the best option.

Bear with me while I make the case.

Exactly one AAC football member is currently receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll — Memphis at No. 26. That means if you move Memphis to the Pac-12, the AAC will have zero football members voting in the AP poll. The Pac-12 will have three in Memphis, Boise State and Washington State. If the Pac-12 also adds UNLV — which it should try to do based on the football and basketball potential the school has and the incredible market it's in — then the Pac-12 would have four schools at the top of the current 31 in the AP survey.

That's the same number as the Big 12.

ACC has only five.

To repeat, AAC minus Memphis would be zero.

Meanwhile, exactly one AAC men's basketball member is currently in the top 80 of BartTorvik.com's preseason rankings — Memphis at No. 32. That means if you move Memphis to the Pac-12, the AAC will have zero basketball members at the top of BartTorvik.com's 80 while the Pac-12 will have four in Memphis, Boise State, San Diego State and Colorado State. If the Pac-12 were to add Gonzaga as a non-football member — which it certainly should try to do based on what Mark Few's reliably strong program can bring to the league — the Pac-12 would then have five schools.Top on BartTorvik.com 80, among them schools that appeared in the NCAA Tournament title game in 2008 (Memphis), 2017 (Gonzaga), 2021 (Gonzaga) and 2023 (San Diego State).

The new Pac-12 should be a multi-bid men's basketball league annually.

AAC probably won't go ahead.

So, yes, it's time to go.

Bottom line, moving from the AAC to the Pac-12 would suddenly put the Tigers back in a conference with other schools that have accomplished the real things in sports that matter most. In AAC, they had it but no more. I don't write it to be bad. I write this because it is true.

In a perfect world, the Big East would never split. Or the Big 12 would have taken Memphis 12 years ago. Or now the Tigers would have been taken by the ACC. But college athletics is not a perfect world. Far from it, actually. So what Memphis officials should do is stop thinking about what might have been, stop thinking about what might have been, and move on and improve their place in the imperfect world of college athletics by accepting an offer, assuming it finally does. To come, join the new-look and still-growing Pac-12.

Will it bring Memphis Big Ten money? no Will it earn Memphis the power-conference label? no But what it will do is put Memphis in a league that's arguably better than the one it's currently in and give both the football and men's basketball programs a more attractive schedule.

It will do more than that, to be sure.

But that alone is enough.

So if the Pac-12 offer comes, and there's plenty of reason to believe it does, as long as it makes financial sense, yes, absolutely, it's time for Memphis to go. Fans were forever waiting for something better. The Pac-12 isn't perfect, I know. But it will definitely be better than AAC. And at a time when almost everyone in college athletics is either moving forward or backward, moving from a great conference to an undeniably good one would be smart for Memphis.