Arizona wins Pac-12 baseball title in conference's final event - ESPN

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Waves of fans streamed into Scottsdale Stadium an hour before the start, anticipation building each minute closer to first pitch.

They came to see the Pac-12 baseball championship game. They got a dose of history with it.

With Arizona and Southern California atop the marquee, the undercurrent of Saturday night's game swirled around what could be a finality: the end of the Pac-12 Conference as we know it.

«It's weird that it feels like it's the end of it,» said Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2020 baseball draft after three seasons at Arizona State. «I guess it makes sense: Money talks to these conferences.»

Money certainly led to the demise of the once-proud Pac-12.

With no imminent media rights deal on the horizon, the conference began to splinter, starting with USC and UCLA's decision to leave for the Big Ten.

The seismic shift east led to a tsunami of defections.

Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah opted for a move to the Big 12. Washington and Oregon joined the Southern California schools in heading to the Big Ten. California and Stanford will be in the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

That left Washington State and Oregon State clinging to the remnants of a Pac-12 facing what's still an uncertain future.

«That's the sad thing about it: You start talking about those awards you start thinking, boy, that's the last time this conference is going to be able to do that,» said Arizona coach Chip Hale, the first person to earn Pac-12 baseball player of the year (1987) and coach of the year (2024) honors.

Unless the conference resurrects, Hale and his Wildcats will go out as the Pac-12's final champions after rallying from a three-run deficit to