When USC and UCLA decided to move to the Big Ten, the future of the Pac-12 was immediately thrown into chaos. With everything in flux, conference commissioner George Kliavkoff and the rest of the board members are scrambling to salvage things before they become broken beyond repair.

Part of that quest to save the Pac-12 involves closing on a media rights deal that could preserve the future of the conference. Even though Kliavkoff said a deal is near, nothing is certain as of yet.

According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, there's more than the future at stake for the embattled conference, and a crossroads has been reached.

It's no secret USC and UCLA were charter members of the Pac-12, and if there were two teams that figured to keep their locales, it would have been those two. With that said, such is the life in the arms race of college sports expansion.

Nobody knows how things will end up, but here's what is known. The SEC and Big Ten are looking like the two super-conferences, and the ACC has at least maintain their current status. The Big 12 added teams in an attempt to offset the losses of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.

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Pac-12, George Kliavkoff, Washington State, Oregon State, Pac-2, George Kliavkoff and Pac-12 logo with midfield Pac-12 title logo in the background

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Deion Sanders in Colorado football gear next to Pac-12 bowls, the Alamo Bowl, Vegas Bowl, Holiday Bowl, and Sun Bowl logos.

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Photo: Lincoln Riley in USC gear with USC logo in the background

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That leaves the Pac-12, and more of their teams could leave for other pastures if a media deal isn't reached soon. While the conference continues to search for that elusive deal, a lot is on the networks to trust they can get their piece of the money pie, and that's hard to do when nobody knows what the Pac-12 will look like in the coming years.

With that, it's not a stretch to say the existence of the Pac-12 is at stake, and the clock is ticking to get that deal.