Las Vegas Bowl future remains cloudy after Pac-12 collapse

Ever since conference realignment struck the Pac-12, John Saccenti has been asked the same six-word question. What are you going to do?

Saccenti is the executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl, a role he’s served in since 2014. The game’s not-so-distant future is cloudier than ever as the Pac-12, one of its conference tie-ins, may not exist in 2024.

To that question, he says, “My honest and true answer is I don’t know. That’s the truth, unfortunately.”

The Las Vegas Bowl, as currently configured, has three conference partners. The Pac-12 sends one team every season, while the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference alternate. This year’s Las Vegas Bowl will feature the Pac-12 against the Big Ten at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 23 at Allegiant Stadium.

However, as of Monday, the Pac-12 only has two members for next season: Washington State and reigning Las Vegas Bowl champions Oregon State.

USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are all headed to the Big Ten. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are joining the Big 12, while California and Stanford found life rafts in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Those 10 schools have accounted for 20 Las Vegas Bowl appearances.

Saccenti said he hopes the Las Vegas Bowl will have some clarity on its position for 2024 by January. It’s not entirely up to him and his staff.

“At this point, it’s a lot of conversations with not a lot of movement,” he said.

Two things need to happen before the Las Vegas Bowl can seriously begin conversations about adjusting its conference tie-ins, said Saccenti. First, it has to wait for the College Football Playoff to announce its finalized expanded format.

Previously, the CFP was going to grant automatic bids to the six highest-ranked conference champions — likely the Power 5 and one Group of 5 team — and the next six highest-ranked teams. The new format was scheduled to begin for the 2024 season, but the Pac-12’s implosion has thrown everything into disarray.

Once the new CFP format is announced, specifically how the at-large bids will work, the Las Vegas Bowl has to wait for a decision from the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee. Currently, it sets the specific number of bowl games allowed for each conference.

However, with the Big Ten expanding to 18 teams, the ACC growing to 17 football-playing members (Notre Dame is an independent for football but ACC for everything else), and the SEC and Big 12 swelling to 16 schools, adjustments will need to be made.

“We’re talking to our existing conference partners, we’re talking internally, we’re talking externally,” Saccenti said. “Unfortunately, we’re kind of in a holding pattern on being able to do anything.”

The final piece of this puzzle for the Las Vegas bowl is finding another conference partner. Saccenti said all bowl games are on the same six-year cycle.

This is the fourth season of the contract, which ends in 2025, meaning most conferences are already locked into other bowl games for the next two years. The Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Sun Bowl and Los Angeles Bowl — all games with Pac-12 tie-ins — are in a similar position

There are possibilities for the Las Vegas Bowl. Saccenti said the Big 12’s expansion makes it an intriguing potential partner, and his staff has engaged in conversations with it and the Mountain West, the game’s tie-in from 2001-2019, as the Las Vegas Bowl gauges its options.

While Saccenti and the Las Vegas Bowl await decisions from the CFP and the Oversight Committee, he’s focused on this season’s game — potentially the last with the Pac-12.

“This might be the best Pac-12 from top to bottom we’ve seen in a really long time,” he said. “I’m excited.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on X.