Attribution to Pac-12 Style Guide

When I was a kid, I grew up on the Canadian side, just across the bordr from Big Ten country. Saturday afternoons were filled with listening the Michigan Wolverine games. The highlight games being games against the Spartans and the Buckeyes, as well as the Irish. Moved west, not so close to the border, but would be able to catch the Cougars, the Huskies and with the dish would watch Bill Walton and his unique style of colour commentary of PAC 10 basketball games. The Pac 10, then PAC 12, has been around for over 100 years It has produced dynasties like John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins basketball teams. I remember watching a John Shumate led Notre Dame end the Bruins’ 88 game undefeated streak 71-70 back in 1974. The PAC 12, as Bill Walton would say, the Conference of Champions.

And now? Four teams to the Big 10 now 18. Four teams to the Big 12 (I have lost count how many teams are there now) Stanford and California gone to the ACC. The Pac 12 is now a dead Oregon duck. The only two teams left, Oregon State and Washington State. It is a bloody shame.

What happens to the remaining two schools. Probably absorbed by the Mountain West. Now the Cougars and Beavers are used to about $30 million in tv revenues. The move to the Mountain West will reduce that to $5 million. The problem is, these two schools current have an Athletics Program structure built for $30 million in revenues. That is going to be a painful readjustment with some programs like cut. You can also say goodbye to the Washington/Washington State Apple Cup rivalry and the Oregon school’s CIVIL War game.

The reality is college football is a big business. The Conference of Champions, a casualty. I keep thinking of Sam Malone at the end of the Cheers finale “Sorry we’re closed”.