I'll be honest: I am getting kind of emotional over the death of the Pac-12/10/8, the final blows (Washington and Oregon getting into the Big 10, Arizona, Arizona St. and Utah getting into the Big 12) to the bruised, listing, and on-life-support body being laid last/Friday night. I could see the signs how this could end really, really badly for the conference last week, when Colorado peaced out and returned to the Big 12, and yet I'm still shocked at the rapidity and the finality of it. This conference has been around for more than a century. The last remaining members of that league might have to escape to the fucking Mountain West, for God's sake.
I don't root for conferences. I care about my team, and I don't give a flying shit about my team's rivals. But this is different. Hating my alma mater's rivals doesn't mean I don't want the Pac-10/12/8 to succeed, let alone live. It really is strange, even unfair, that a region of the United States of America doesn't have its own college sports conference -- and no, sorry, the West Coast Conference doesn't count.
Instead, we now have a Big Ten Conference that, first of all, is now 18 teams big, and now stretches from coast to coast ... even though there are no teams in the Mountain Time Zone. My alma mater and UCLA bolted a conference they were the sources of power in for an association they will have to fly at least half the country away on a regular basis to play Games -- and a couple times (depending on the sport), all the way to the East Coast. Maybe the move was justified, even necessary in a future where money becomes even more important. Or, maybe it's not.
I am still trying to compose my thoughts on what has been an historic day in college football and sports. Dare I say that I feel some trauma. What I want to do is list, in descending order, who and what are to blame for The Death Of The Pac-12/-10/-8:
The Supposed Need For Greed
All of the moves and the backstabbing have one motivation: Money. Not that there isn't a whole lot these college football programs have already. But they somehow believe that they are, in fact, poor, or will be poor if they don't jump to a more lucrative boat. They get into their heads that standing still means falling behind, and so the thirst for the next big payday is relentless and leaves a wake of broken rivalries and ignored history behind them. This permanent quest for money stains everything about what has transpired.
Larry Scott, Former Commissioner
It's probably not fair to pin all this bullshit on one man, but if there is one person responsible for the league's demise, it's those fucker. Turns out he is a snake oil salesman. He came in holding the most lucrative conference contract in college sports and proceeded to piss it all away. Establishing the Pac-12 Network and refusing to partner with a media conglomerate to cut costs and to get into more cable households still is not a bad strategy, and I probably will die on this hill; if the network(s) were a success, they would be making money hand over fist. But the network was headquartered in the heart of San Francisco, where rent was so, so high. Meanwhile, he was paid an obscene salary, much more than the Commissioners of the more powerful B1G and SEC. And apparently he spent lavishly on the conference's dime, too. When he finally was told to scram, he got away with a carload of gold, and he left a raft of problems that the rest of the league had to clean up -- and, turns out, failed to clean up.
The Failure Of The Conference In Football
Overlooked in all the cloak-and-dagger stuff is the simple fact that if the football teams in the Pac-12 were any good, or at least as good as those in the SEC, I think the network would make money, and subsequently the conference would survive. However, the league got into the College Football Playoff only twice -- Oregon in the first Year and Washington. My alma mater, supposedly the Big Man On Campus, has been in the wilderness for the past 15 Years. The Pac-12 has been largely a joke when it comes to football, and that wiped away any currency the league had to be considered seriously.
The Decision By The Two Los Angeles Schools To Leave
And still, if my alma mater and UCLA decided to stay, I'm not going to say they couldn't command the money they think they need to go on. They could set the terms of revenue distribution, saying they are entitled to more than the others based on brand. As easy as it may be to see the demise of the Pac-12 coming now, remember that they stole Colorado and Utah. The two schools jetting for the Midwest was the first time in modern history they lost schools, and that made it easier for others to follow suit.
George Kliavkoff, Current Commissioner
He will get more blame for this than he should. I think Larry Scott fucked up so much that there wasn't a whole lot Kliavkoff could have done to save his league. But he was holding, like, a pair of queens and busted out. His dithering in getting a media deal done made association members nervous. Moreover, he tried to be patient and wait out the hysteria in order to get a bigger deal -- a move many writers lauded, it has to be said. But it is his fault he couldn't broker a contract better than a streaming service, Apple TV+, which offered a bigger per-school payday only if the contract hit certain subscriber marks. Many of the schools waited patiently and pledged loyalty until they heard about this new media deal; when they finally saw the details on August 1, many of the remaining schools were so disappointed that Colorado left in due haste. And the dominoes just fell soon thereafter.
This guy is a commissioner of a Power 5 Conference. Honestly, he might as well hold a liquidation sale now.
I am letting school presidents and athletic directors off the hook, although Arizona St. President Michael Crow has emerged as either a sucker or a tragic hero. He stands as the last defender of the association as it was, although he was also Larry Scott's biggest champion. Reports say he left for the Big 12 reluctantly. He leaves as a defeated man, and I wonder how long he will head ASU after this humiliation.
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I am sad. Sad to the point of buying Pac-12-branded gear because I think there's zero chance the league will be around a Year from now. Bought a couple of discounted socks and a couple of t-shirts with the logo on it. I'll wear one of each and save one of each, in case they become collectibles.
No one should come out as a hero after this. And no one besides the now-Pac-4 (Stanford, Cal, Washington St. and Oregon St.) should be given sympathies for thinking, "Hey, we had to do what we had to do," or, "We had to make the best of a bad situation," or, worst of all, "This is not my fault." The Pac-12 is just about dead because a lot of people helped kill it.
It's the duplicity about it all that really pisses me off. Nothing happens, and then all this shit happens at once. Conferences say they're not looking to add teams, then they add them. What I really fucking hate is the speed at which teams are accepted into new leagues. Conferences say they do their "due diligence" in assessing whether they'll accept schools, but then the process of vetting and then accepting these schools happen over a matter of hours, and probably through Zoom. Schools leave conferences they've been in for Decades over hastily-called meetings that last a long lunch.
And it doesn't make any goddamn sense. This is totally a football move, but while I am guessing men's basketball will be OK (although I think even that sport would be better off separating from football and reverting to conferences as we knew them way back when), the women's tennis or men's golf teams that have to travel half a country away to face a team they have no history with is going to take a toll on their schooling in a way football players don't have to face. And it's an added burden athletic directors, conference commissioners and university presidents will just chalk up as collateral damage.
And will these teams that move really be better where they will be? The Big Ten now has 18 fucking teams, and they might as well add Stanford and Cal -- and if and when the ACC breaks up, Virginia and North Carolina. That will be a crowd of football powers that my alma mater will now have to climb over. Do they really think that's better than having a conference all its own, in a region of the country all its own, and a paved road to a postseason and football success and riches? (Of course, they haven't taken advantage of that road even up till now, but that road was still there with the Pac-12.) They could say they did it for the money, but they could still be stuck in football oblivion like they are now.
Speaking of oblivion ... well, that's what the Pacific-12/-8/-10 is now facing. People were spitballing that the death of a Power 5 Conference could happen, but still: How did this happen? How did a proud association of West Coast and Western schools completely fall apart in a matter of a week? It's unbelievable, and it's fucking ridiculous.
Rest In Peace, Pac-10/-8/-12.
