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Larry Scott: No Pac-12 expansion for 'foreseeable future'

With conference expansion seemingly becoming an annual event, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott says 12 teams is the "optimal number" for the league.

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There are no plans to expand the Pac-12 anytime in the "foreseeable future," reports the Washington Post. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said that even other conferences expanding to 16 teams would not force his conference to expand.

Conference realignment is a regular event in college football, but Scott called 12 teams the "optimal number" for the conference, with a balance of geography, rivalries, and frequency of match-ups. The history of the Pacific collegiate sports conferences has included the Big Five, Big Six, and the Pacific-8, 10 and 12. The most recent expansion saw the addition of the Colorado Buffaloes and the Utah Utes in 2011.

Scott also discussed the Pac-12 Digital Network. The network was a problem for some fans at the end of the season, when the Oregon/Oregon State Civil War was broadcast on the network and thus unavailable to DirecTV subscribers. Scott said he was disappointed that every distributor had not picked up the network, but cited other collegiate efforts like the Big Ten network in explaining that development takes time. The Big Ten Network was available on only two providers when it launched, with major carriers adding the network throughout the first three years of its existence.

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