You can’t tell me that teams located nearly 3,000 miles apart in the same conference makes sense to anyone but an accountant or TV executive. I acknowledge that chaos is titillating, and change can be exciting, and I understand the lure of joining an elite conference and what that can mean as far as prestige and visibility. But those road trips to Iowa City and Piscataway, N.J., are going to take some getting used to.
When USC and UCLA bolted the conference around 13 months ago, I wrote about how the departure hit me most deeply on an emotional level. It wasn’t hard to see where this was going to ultimately lead, even though the demise of the conference came about far more quickly than most of us imagined.
So here we are, with the Pac-12 splintered in multiple directions, and Washington prepared to start an entirely new athletic chapter in 2024. It’s a merger of former rivals that no one could have even fathomed when I first fell in love with the conference more than half a century ago watching the likes of Gary Beban and Charles White.
By 2024, most of us will have had time to process the vast changes that are coming, and grudgingly admit that it’s all for the better.
It just doesn’t feel like that right now.
This is pro sports. It makes perfect sense. As for emotional ties, the college football I grew up with has been dead for a long time. The faster we get to the new bidness model the better IMO. Big dicks only in this day and age.
We have “decent” history with Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, plus recent important games vs PSU. We can fight with Wisconsin over the real UW.
How many of the Pac traditional rivalries had rea meaning to them? A couple, yes. But this is like Nebraska leaving the Big12. Yes the Oklahoma rivalry was left behind, but while Nebraska had played KSU KU Missouri and ISU like 100 times each, rarely did those games matter.
People in Seattle will show up to watch UW play many more traditional B1G teams than Pac teams.
The middle and lower end teams besides Cuog, they did not give a fuck about in the Pac 12 era.
This was obviously factored into UW's decision/negotiation.
Yup.
No one gave a flying fuck about the Arizona Schools or Colorado.
Cal and Utah - meh.
Stanford when bad, meh.
That's half the conference as meh at best
When CAL and Stanford join there's going to be 20 teams, 5 opponents from the former Pac. How ofter will we? host Ohio St or Michigan, once every 6 years?
We have “decent” history with Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, plus recent important games vs PSU. We can fight with Wisconsin over the real UW.
How many of the Pac traditional rivalries had rea meaning to them? A couple, yes. But this is like Nebraska leaving the Big12. Yes the Oklahoma rivalry was left behind, but while Nebraska had played KSU KU Missouri and ISU like 100 times each, rarely did those games matter.
People in Seattle will show up to watch UW play many more traditional B1G teams than Pac teams.
The middle and lower end teams besides Cuog, they did not give a fuck about in the Pac 12 era.
This was obviously factored into UW's decision/negotiation.
Yup.
No one gave a flying fuck about the Arizona Schools or Colorado.
Cal and Utah - meh.
Stanford when bad, meh.
That's half the conference as meh at best
When CAL and Stanford join there's going to be 20 teams, 5 opponents from the former Pac. How ofter will we? host Ohio St or Michigan, once every 6 years?
Better than the Pac-12 where we hosted USC and UCLA once every 4 years
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I’m not fond of it but it’s where we are headed; two super leagues.
Is what it is.
Won’t hear the:
Chant much longer…