What is mind boggling to me is that just two weeks ago at media day George K. said that realignment is over, all the teams were sticking together, and that they have been rewarded by not rushing into a media rights agreement with new suitors coming to the table making better offers. We were told through rumors that the media deal would be better than the Big XII’s. All of this 5 days before Arizona left. That is either the monumental screw up of all time or intentional disinformation. An all time business misjudgment.
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It sure looks that way.
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Yes, I note the irony of resorting to posting X-threads.
Not gonna lie. This is done in jest but I’d LOVE this conference. This is that crack real hardcore fans of college ball love.
OH MY! This one too:
There is this:
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There are going to be some seriously pissed off Pac-12 football schools/teams when they face this upcoming season, with big time motivation and chips on their shoulder. Like the ones left completely in the cold, which is looking right now like Oregon State and Washington State, who will be mad at every last team they face, except maybe each other (misery loves company). The Utes visiting the now completed major refurbishment of Reser Stadium against a ranked OSU is not going to be a picnic. Then there’s the Big-12 refugees when they play the Big-10 deserters who got lucky and hit the jack pot, here’s your going away present.
If Cam Rising is close to serviceable I’m guessing Utah Inc. is going to slice the SEC Gators into clothing accessories. Even if Bad Moon doesn’t play I think the Utes win.
I feel sorry for SDSU, a few weeks ago they had Pac-12 stars in their eyes, now they are stuck in MWC status quo.
Speaking of D-I Football, the term is now essentially meaningless. There’s will be at least 3-4 different levels of competition and compensation.
With “student athlete” salaries (NIL), free books, free lodging, free tuition and fees, free tutoring, a $5k annual stipend, the transfer portal, etc., I’m going to adopt Stubbornute’s “NFL Light” to my vocabulary.
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Poor Lobos 
You are a slippery one Steggy. Over it = meaning don’t care about it or all over it meaning really care about it?
Today’s a time to lament the demise of a 108-year-old conference.
Based on nothing else except the relationship between Whitt and Jonathan Smith at Oregon State, I’d be surprised if there are any more announcements, today. At 3:30p on a Friday, the options have dwindled to seemingly just one, in terms of P5 realignment.
I’ll have faith we can grab onto a ledge, but it’s been a grueling few weeks.
This is going to be a difficult season, no matter what happens on the scoreboard.
The Cal and Stanford aspect is eerily silent. Enormous amounts of tradition there, though it’s pretty obvious support for football in the bay area has really dropped. If they went Ivy League model it wouldn’t surprise me.
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Don’t tease…hope this is true.
wow not only were we kept in the dark for over a year…but now it looks like we’re the only major team left in the conference with no clear communication to the fans about where we are headed. So much speculation but where does it lead?
If we end up in the PAC6 do we get to still be a P5 league with an auto bid to the playoff? That might not suck as bad as it could…
Oh we’ve applied to the Big12…joy…well don’t think I’ll be doing any road games for a few years but ah well.
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Sounds like we’re in. I’d still like to stick Larry Scott in USC’s provo.
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The Athletic 38 minutes ago:
By Dana O’Neil
So every time the threat of a snowstorm blows into the Northeast, people dash to the grocery store and wipe out all of the eggs, milk and bread. As if a good batch of French toast will hold them over while they are cut off from civilization for weeks on end. Even people who are perfectly well stocked in eggs, milk and bread find themselves at the checkout at the Acme because it seems the thing to do. Never once do they stop and think that if the storm truly cuts them off from civilization, odds are the perishables will perish in the refrigerator having been severed from the invariable loss of electricity that traditionally comes with end-of-days storms. Or if, in the more likely scenario, they get two inches of snow, they’ll have so many eggs and so much milk and bread, it will go bad.
Welcome to the college athletics blizzard. After days of dithering, reneging, posturing and blathering, the Big Ten has added two schools it could have added a year ago but deemed unworthy, ostensibly killing a 108-year-old league just because it could. Never mind that it does not need Oregonand Washington to survive, that odds are Oregon and Washington weren’t going anywhere and would otherwise remain in the picked-over carcass of the Pac-12, and that the Big Ten isn’t really better because it added the Ducks and the Huskies.
The Big 12 added Coloradoand might add other schools, and well, we need the damned eggs!
This is where we are. Ostensibly bright people are instead acting like lunatics, a lethal combination of pinheaded panicked presidents and carnivorous conference administrators forging a future that is no more stable than the past, while giving exactly zero consideration to their athletes and not even thinking about what the market might bear out in 10 years.
If conference realignment has taught us anything, it is that it is never aligned. “We’ve been waiting for a year, and there is so much enthusiasm in my time across the country with alumni and parents, I really couldn’t wait until July 1.’’ Colorado chancellor Philip DiStefano said that in 2011, as the bells tolled on his campus 12 times to signify the move to the Pac-12. Don’t let the door hit you, Phil.
That’s the great joke in all of this, that somehow these college enterprises are collegial. They are loyal to no one and beholden only to their bank accounts. In the midst of the mayhem, Florida State felt compelled to threaten the ACC with its departure … as if it were 1988, and Wide Right still mattered. (Though God bless Oregon State for pledging its undying love to the Pac-12. Which is kinda like saying the prom is an archaic rite of passage, when, in truth, no one has asked you to go). All of 12 hours ago, Big Ten presidents reportedly weren’t all on board to add Washington and Oregon, and yet now here we are. Grab hands, sing Kumbaya, and grit your teeth. Meanwhile Arizonaand Arizona State are still mullinh their move to the Big 12, which does not exactly read like anyone is super eager to join.
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I don’t disagree with your thoughts. I think we know very little of what all occurred. I certainly do not.
Some have suggested that when the PAC was talking to Oklahoma, OK State, Texas, and Tech, Oklahoma and Texas were mostly using those discussions to get concessions from the Big XII. There are also suggestions that USC was opposed to those additions.
There have been suggestions that USC opposed selling an interest in PAC 12 network to ESPN 4 or 5 years ago and were opposed to adding 4 BigXII schools when Oklahoma and Texas announced they were leaving the BigXII.
To my knowledge, neither USC nor UCLA ever approached the PAC leadership about unequal revenue sharing before leaving.
I believe Scott and GK were both arrogant about the PAC’s position relative to the BigXII and that arrogance may have been the message received from the school Presidents.
Regardless, I hope there is a seat in the BigXII for the Utes. It will provide excellent competition and put us in a conference that plays in mostly sold out stadiums.
If for some reason the Utes do not receive an invite, that will really suck and a lot of people will lose their jobs for financial reasons and Harlan will likely lose his job. Randall has many important functions as President and I don’t think he would lose his job, but his reputation would certainly be tarnished among Ute fans.
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Heavy day, but a little levity:
- The most disappointing thing about Utah joining the Big12, from my perspective - (cougarboard.com)
- Entire mood has soured, like someone just took a dump on my schadenfreude samich (cougarboard.com)
- Yep, and they are still getting a full share and BYU isn’t. (cougarboard.com)
If we get into the B12, they bought one of the nastiest rivalries in the country. There’s just no surrender in this dysfunctional relationship with them.
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Big 12 is a solid football conference. Yes it may seem like a truck stop conference, but they have teams that care about football. It will be a tough conference for Utah to win. They have solid football teams. When Utah goes to away games those stadiums will be packed and sellout. In the PAC 12, Utah and Oregon are the only teams that had fans that cared about football.
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I’d add UW and ASU if they’re having a good year, but this is probably what sunk the PAC more than anything. Mediocre fan support, which makes media valuations a real wild card.
Pound for pound, Oregon State & Wazzu have great fan bases.
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If we do get into the Big 12, we are going to have a very tough time in men’s basketball.
Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St, West Virginia…
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Full share. Board gave Taylor Randall the power to major a decision quickly.
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Couldn’t help myself and quietly lurked onto Zoob-board awhile ago. They are so bitter and unpleasant and I feel soiled going there. But the one posting I laughed at was one saying they should boycott Utah games.
I can’t tell you what a disappointment it would be if there weren’t a few thousand obnoxious Zoobs there next time they visit the Hunty. (obviously being sarcastic here)
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