Big 12

Good thoughts.

I know that Scalley has been anointed as the coach-in-waiting but were Whitt to retire in the near future, Jonathan Smith at Oregon State would be a good candidate to take over. What he’s done with the mess Anderson left is pretty remarkable and the style of play would be fairly similar to what we’ve seen lately.

I realize that isn’t the Smith you were referring to but with my scatterbrain, I’ve got to get thoughts on the page whenever they come to mind.

Random thought that I had not seen mentioned yet is the PAC12 refs versus the XVII. Pretty sure most of us won’t miss and will welcome that change.

In my opinion, the blame for the demise of the Pac-12 falls on (in order)…

1. USC. After Texas & Oklahoma announced their intentions to defect to the SEC, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma St immediately applied to join the Pac-12. Pac-12 schools were initially open to discussing the idea, but USC immediately vetoed it, killing it on the spot. And they’d done this while they were finalizing the deal to join the BigTen! At that time, even UCLA didn’t know about it. If USC was so sure, and so intent to leave, why take UCLA with them, and veto any new members? Had USC not prevented TT, TCU, BU, and OSU from joining, the Pac-12 would not have folded.

2. Colorado. The Pac-12 could have survived as a 10-team league, or as a 12-team league with the additions of SDSU and SMU. But rather than wait to see what the Pac-12 has to offer, CU bolted as though that was their only chance to join. In my opinion, losing Arizona wouldn’t have been as impactful as losing any of the other 4-corner schools, but CU was a big deal. Plus, it started the ball rolling by making Arizona flinch. The Big 12 was bluffing when they’d said they wanted to stop at 14 teams, and was considering UConn and either Memphis or SDSU if none of the 4-corner schools joined soon. The Big 12 wouldn’t have really invited any of those other 3 midmajors with or without any of the 4-corner schools. They were just a leveraged bluff, and CU bought it.

3. George Kliavkoff. First, he bungled the exit of the L.A. schools. Then he’d bungled the media negotiations. Then he got outplayed by the commissioner of a weaker conference. Then he lost the trust of the Pac-12’s presidents and chancellors with his stalling and disingenuous communications with them. This guy was incompetent at his job, and makes me wish we still had Larry Scott — a guy who’d already been mismanaging our league.

4. Arizona. I honestly wouldn’t have cared that much if we’d lost UA. They were pretty much a useless institution who wasn’t pulling their weight. CU wasn’t either, but at least they’d brought the Denver market. That said, losing UA was the final death knell for the Pac-12, because we’d already lost CU, and couldn’t afford to drop down to 8-teams.

I don’t fault UW or UO at all for accepting the BigTen’s invitation. After all, who in the league wouldn’t have at this point? We’d already lost the L.A. schools, CU, and UA, so we weren’t much of a conference anymore. And even if they hadn’t, they had to have known that at this point, there would have been no reason for Utah or Arizona St to stay anymore, so why turn down a superior, higher paying, P2 conference out of any “loyalty” to a conference whose teams hadn’t been showing any in return?

At this point, I hope the Big 12 will make enough room for Cal and Stanford. I loved the Pac-12, so these are dark times for Utah fans. We were unfortunately left with no choice but to join an academically and geographically inferior conference.