Changes in college sports conferences become official

The Pacific 10 Conference officially became the Pac-12 on Friday, the same day the Big Ten went up to 12 teams and the Big 12 shrunk to 10.

So goes the landscape of major college sports, and it didn’t stop there. Brigham Young, a university with an enrollment of about 34,000, is now part of the West Coast Conference, where no other school has as many as 10,000 students.

Utah and Colorado are now members of the Pac-12, and for football they will join UCLA, USC, Arizona and Arizona State in the conference’s South Division. California, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State are in the North Division.

The division winners will meet in the inaugural Pac-12 football championship game on Dec. 3 at the home stadium of the team with the best overall conference record. USC is not eligible for that game next season.

Football is the only sport when teams are split into divisions.

Big Ten football will also be split into divisions, with newcomer Nebraska joining Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern in the Legends Division and Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin in the Leaders Division. The Big Ten football championship game will be played in Indianapolis, also on Dec. 3.

The addition of BYU makes the WCC a nine-team conference. BYU’s football team will play as an independent.

The new Pac-12:

South: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, Utah.

North: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Washington State.