OSU's Tinkle can be part of Pac-12's rebirth, as his former peers look elsewhere in 2024-25

Oregon State’s Wayne Tinkle might be the most abandoned coach in college basketball this season.

By August 2023, nearly all of his Pac-12 peers were on the way out, headed via conference realignment to the Big 12, Big Ten and ACC starting this season. Then the one guy Tinkle could commiserate with last season, then-Washington State coach Kyle Smith, took off for Stanford last March, leaving the Cougars of the “Pac-2” to join the Cardinal’s puzzling cross-country ride to the ACC.

At home in Corvallis, meanwhile, Tinkle also lost seven players, including leading scorers Jordan Pope and Tyler Bilodeau, potentially adding to a sense of exasperation.

But Tinkle expressed plenty of hope during a summertime interview with the Star and Blue Ribbon Yearbook.

“It’s been a real mixed bag of emotions,” Tinkle said. “When you look the Pac-12 and guys like Dana (Altman of Oregon) and Tad Boyle (of Colorado), Andy (Enfield) at USC, those were kind of the guys who had been in the league for a long time, and now they’ve all gone their separate ways.

“But we’re confident that the Pac-12 is going to be rebuilt. I think what we’ve seen happen in the last couple of years is not going to be the end of it. There may be some reshuffling.”

Tinkle’s prediction started coming true Thursday, when news broke that San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State and Colorado State were joining the Pac-12 starting in 2026. Speculation immediately rose that Stanford and Cal might rethink their decision to join the ACC — or that the ACC itself might splinter — with Pac-12 still needing at least two more teams to be recognized as an official conference.

Arizona and the other seven Pac-12 defectors appear much less likely to return, with media rights riches — and stiffer competition — awaiting them in the Big Ten and Big 12.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be tough,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, whose team was picked to finish fourth in the Big Ten by Blue Ribbon. “It doesn’t matter what league you’re in. I think it matters how good the teams are, and that changes year-to-year. But with new officials and new scenery, there’s a lot of concerns.”

This season, there’s little doubt that the stiffest mix of teams awaits Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and the three other former Pac-12 coaches who are headed to the Big 12: Utah’s Craig Smith, Colorado’s Tad Boyle and ASU’s Bobby Hurley.

But that challenge also comes with the exposure and passion that comes from being in what Kenpom rates the No. 1 conference in college basketball. Exactly half of the top 10 teams in ESPN’s early Top 25 are from the Big 12: Kansas (1), Houston (4), Baylor (6), Iowa State (7) and Arizona (9).

“I’m super excited about being a part of the Big 12,” Utah’s Smith said. “I think five the last five or six years, it’s been regarded as the best league in the country. And as a college basketball coach or player, you want to be a part of that. You want to be a part of the best and challenge yourself every single night, test your limits.

“If you have true competitors in your program, it brings out the best in who you are and what you stand for and what you’re about.”

During an interview at the Section 7 recruiting event in June, Hurley said he’s preparing the Sun Devils with a tough nonconference schedule: ASU has scheduled nonconference games against Gonzaga, Florida and UMass while playing in the Acrisure Classic against New Mexico and either Saint Mary’s or USC.

“We’re not going to just sit at home and try to beat every team we can by 40 points and have our NET ranking be the best in the country or something,” Hurley said. “We’re going to go play a tough nonconference. And the Big 12 is the best basketball league in the country, in my opinion.

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“The water is very deep, so we’re either going to work hard and prepare for that, or we’re going to be in trouble.”

In one sense, Boyle doesn’t have to prepare for life in the Big 12 because he’s already lived it. Twice, in fact: As a player at Kansas and as a coach at Colorado, which was in the Big 12 for his first season with the Buffaloes before transitioning to the Pac-12 in 2011.

But the move this time comes with mixed emotions.

“I made the comment then that we were leaving one good league and going to another good league, and I feel the same way as we go back,” Boyle said. “It’s a big-time league.

“I’m very, very disappointed that the Pac-12 blew up. With the traditions of that league and the institutions, I think it’s really sad. With that being said, I’m tickled that we’re in the Big 12. It’s kind of going back home.”

But the Big 12 that Boyle left in 2011 was hardly today’s Big 12. For one thing, it actually had 12 teams back then. It was also rooted exclusively in the central part of the country.

But the Big 12 now spans four time zones ... and has 16 teams.

“It’s significantly different,” Boyle said. “We’re going to Orlando, Florida, West Virginia and Cincinnati. The cities are different.

“But the one thing I know about the Big 12 is that the teams that are in it, the communities and the venues that you play in, is pretty special.”

For Boyle, the biggest adjustment might not be the league, but the fact that he has to replace three NBA Draft picks from last season’s Buffaloes: Guard KJ Simpson, forward Tristan Da Silva and forward Cody Williams. While Blue Ribbon Yearbook forecasts UA finishing fifth in the Big 12, it has Colorado at 13th, ASU 14th and Utah last at 16th.

“I wish we could come into the Big 12 with last year’s team,” Boyle said. “I think this year’s team has a lot of upside. We’ve got a lot of unproven players, but very talented players.

“I’m excited about the Big 12, but I also know what we’re in for. We’ve got to get a lot better in November and December to get ready for league play.”

Tinkle, meanwhile, has two directions to look: At what’s ahead in the WCC, in which OSU and WSU will compete as associates for the next two seasons, and to anchoring whatever the Pac-12 becomes in the years ahead.

Blue Ribbon picked WSU to finish fifth in the WCC and OSU seventh, behind a top four of Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and San Francisco.

“We’re thrilled to be associated with (WCC teams) for the time being,” Tinkle said. “And the Pac-12, and the administrations on both our campus and Washington State, are going to help us navigate the waters.

“I know that we’re going to be in a good spot no matter where it is down the road. But right now, we’ve got to stay focused on the present and get back to our winning ways here at Oregon State.”