Riding up the ladder is good. It provides you with an opportunity for upgrade and better of everything. But at what cost? There’s this ACC program at Tennessee that has cooked up plenty of headlines recently, and not just for the gridiron action. The Tigers, after back-to-back 10-win seasons and bowl victories over high-level opponents. Yes, those very teams sent a healthy crop of talent to the NFL, including all-time passing leader Seth Henigan, who’s now Florida-bound with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Off the field, the talk of the town has been the shiny facelift to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Optimism? Check.

The Memphis Tigers have ambition, and they’ve been trying to parlay their recent gridiron success and upgraded facilities into an invitation to the grown-ups’ table. Yes, the Power Five is what they are targeting. The famous, or infamous, reported $250 million “offering plate” Memphis set at the Big 12’s feet, hoping a big fat stadium investment check might be their golden ticket. Because if beating Big 12 teams in bowls wasn’t enough, maybe a quarter of a billion would be.

But it turns out the Big 12 wasn’t exactly wooed. “Not interested,” came the reply, as per the On3 sources. And leaving Tigers boosters to ponder if they should have offered barbecue ribs instead of cash. Over the past year, Memphis president Bill Hardgrave seemingly became a traveling salesman, logging fourteen months of face-to-face time with Big 12 presidents and athletic directors. An audacious proposal, worth a whopping $200–$250 million in sponsorships over five years, courtesy of blue-chip backers like FedEx, Lowe’s, and AutoZone.

That’s not all. To really sweeten the pot, Memphis offered to take zero share of conference TV revenue for five years. That’s the entire contract life with FOX and ESPN. Basically just to show this wasn’t about the money (okay, it was definitely about the money, just not their money). Unlike some expansion suitors, Memphis didn’t ask anyone else to pay their way. They came ready to foot the bill and find their sponsors, too. Unfortunately, this pitch was so aggressive that, rumor has it, Big 12 presidents never even took it to a formal vote. As per sources, “It was clear relatively quickly the interest wasn’t there.”

The conference Presidents were wary that Memphis, despite its open checkbook, might ding the conference’s long-term TV value. Others wondered if the Tigers, even flush with FedEx dollars, added enough cachet to justify stretching the league map one more time. In the end, it was a hard pass, and the answer came down as a collective.

Will Memphis make room for the sneaky suitor?

After their Big 12 dreams were dashed. Memphis is out looking for a new destination. Enter the Pac-12, that plucky conference trying to reinvent itself post-realignment with more twists than a Memphis bar blues solo. This wasn’t just idle flirtation. Sources say the Pac-12 took a serious interest. The Pac-12, down to a funky roster with programs from Boise to Gonzaga and still needs an eighth full-time FBS member. And thus eyed Memphis as that golden ticket to relevance. Meetings reportedly happened between Memphis AD Ed Scott and Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould over the past several months.

Scott, meanwhile, has been working the phones and the charm. He is looking for any route out of the American Athletic Conference and into a power league. But obviously, there was drama. Scott didn’t mince words and said, “There can be no conversations” with the Pac-12 until they lock down their next media deal. The Pac-12 wants Memphis, but Memphis isn’t about to sign up for a party without knowing how big the paycheck is. And especially since initial TV contract pitches have been trimmed back to ‘substantial, but not Big 12 money’ levels.

So, Memphis waits impatiently while the Pac-12 hustles to keep its lifeboat afloat. No deal is expected until at least 2027–28, due to expensive AAC exit fees and a required two-plus years’ notice anyway. Meanwhile, Memphis isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket. Word is, school officials have held feelers with the Big East brass as well, kicking around the idea of slotting their basketball program into the Big East while the football side goes wherever the best invite comes. With Memphis basketball’s pedigree and tradition, that’s not just a backup plan; it’s a pretty prestigious landing spot by itself.