Pac-12 expansion odds for San Diego State, SMU, UNLV, Boise State, Fresno State, Big 12

Pac-12 realignment and expansion speculation continues to swirl around the conference, with chatter surrounding the conference potentially expanding heating up.

Who is most likely to join the Pac-12 in conference expansion, should the conference expand?

Pac-12 Insider John Canzano recently created odds for the Pac-12's next schools.

The most likely school to join the Pac-12, according to Canzano?

San Diego State, with odds put at 2-1.

He wrote:  "It’s the most obvious choice and one that I think the Pac-12 would be wise to explore with alacrity. San Diego State’s DMA brings 1.1 million television households and adding the Aztecs would get the Pac-12 back into Southern California. The Big 12 could potentially meddle here, and provide some leverage for SDSU. But I think San Diego State makes far more sense for the Pac-12 geographically and suspect the university would be happy to take a lower distribution of media-rights funds in the early years."

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SMU was second in Canzano's odds of teams that could join the Pac-12 in conference expansion, at 4-1.

"It has a tiny campus footprint in Dallas, but the Mustangs have immense donor support and adding them would get the Pac-12 into Texas," Canzano wrote. "The DFW market includes more than 2.9 million television households. That is super attractive. Several conference coaches have told me they’d love to recruit Texas regularly but are unsure about the travel demands it would create for the non-football teams on campus. Still, we’re in an era of shake-ups and this is the easiest path into an important recruiting area."

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UNLV was third in odds to join the Pac-12, at 5-1, with Boise State at 6-1 and Fresno State rounding out the Group of 5 conference teams in the odds at 8-1.

But Fresno State wasn't last in the Pac-12 Insider's odds as possible expansion candidate for the conference.

Canzano interestingly had "Big 12 hunting" at 10-1.

From Canzano: "Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff said on Media Day last month that he hadn’t decided if he was going shopping in the Big 12 yet. It was a barb directed at a conference he accused of lobbing “grenades” at him for several weeks. Kliavkoff said he believed the Big 12 was trying to destabilize the Pac-12. There’s the matter of Big 12 bylaws, which potentially penalizes departing members to the tune of about $76 million. But there’s a tricky workaround there. The conference bylaws also allow for the Big 12 to be dissolved with only eight votes. Texas and Oklahoma are already there. That only leaves six votes to get and there would be no penalty. If the Pac-12 poached Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, Kansas and Kansas State, the Big 12 would disband. I don’t think this is going to happen. In part, because I don’t believe ESPN wants to further disrupt the teetering ecosystem. Also, because I don’t think the Pac-12 would necessarily want all of those schools. Still, I’m throwing this out there because one Pac-12 AD told me he’s in favor of chasing a number of current and future Big 12 teams vs. adding a bunch of Mountain West Conference candidates that dilute the value of the Pac-12. 'Oklahoma State is at the top of my list,' he said."

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Some speculation continues to link Oregon and possibly Washington to the Big Ten Conference and Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado to the Big 12.

Might the Pac-12 go on the offensive and try to add some of the best Group of 5 schools out West, or some schools from the Big 12 to prevent that from happening, or to help it survive should the Big Ten poach more universities from the conference?

Outkick's David Hookstead wrote about the lack of leverage the Pac-12 had at the moment.

He wrote: "There’s just one problem with the PAC-12 attempting expansion as a last ditch effort to survive, and it’s the fact the conference has very little leverage right now. If it was known for a fact no more teams were leaving for the Big Ten, the conference would actually probably be in a stable position to at least move forward as is and maybe pluck a few MWC teams. However, without a locked down media deal in place, there’s really no incentive to join the PAC-12, and who is going to give the conference a media deal when many more teams might be leaving? Essentially, the PAC-12 selling point to smaller programs is there *might* be stability in the future, but that’s far from certain right now. … The PAC-12 seems to be in serious trouble, and it’s incredibly unlikely an expansion hail Mary saves it based on the information we know right now."

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Heartland Sports' Bryan Clinton could not envision Big 12 schools leaving for the Pac-12.

"Oklahoma State is a prime expansion candidate, but to think they’d leave for the Pac-12 is asinine," he wrote. "I’d be worried if it were the SEC or the Big Ten, but to leave the Big 12 when it has finally found some stability for a dying conference in the Pac-12 just doesn’t make sense. Now, I don’t typically consider myself a fortune teller, but I can say with complete confidence that the Big 12 isn’t going to disband because schools such as Oklahoma decide that they would like to align with the programs out west. While this might be something George Kliavkoff hopes and dreams of happening, the Pac-12 lost its chance at expansion around a decade ago, ultimately leaving the conference to die moving forward."

Conference realignment and expansion talk is bound to continue to swirl, with the Pac-12 right in the middle of it.

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pac-12 Conference expansion odds include San Diego State, SMU, Big 12