Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Don’t let the impending doom of the Pac-12 take your attention away from a very fun football season ahead.
The Pac-12 might be dying as we speak.
With USC and UCLA packing their bags for B1G-ger, greener pastures next year, the other Pac-12 schools are scrambling to find safe footing just in case things fall apart for the conference. The Arizona Board of Regents have called a meeting to discuss Arizona and Arizona State potentially moving to the Big 12, which suddenly looks a lot more stable than the Pac-12 despite the conference recently losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC:
On top of that, you have the Big Ten continuing to poke around Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal, to try and get them to jump ship as well. Just, don’t tell the Big Ten that what they’re doing is extremely obvious and contributing to the downfall of the Pac-12, because the B1G believes they operate on a higher moral code than everyone else (which is bullshit).
Source confirms that a subgroup of Big Ten presidents has begun exploratory discussions about expanding membership by two or four teams. (@DanWetzel first.) Schools under consideration: Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford. Source says “it’s a discussion but it’s a wait and see.”
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) August 2, 2023
Oh yeah, and the Pac-12 might not have a TV deal either. Rumors are that the proposed deal is with Apple TV+, but nothing has been set in stone. This also comes after Arizona and Arizona State have pretty much skedaddled, so, good job commish. The numbers on the projected deal also don’t look to great:
I did the math on the crappleTV deal for the Pac 12. They would need 32.6 million subscribers to get Big 12 numbers.
That’s a bit less than 10% of America. That’s about how many people are currently subscribed to AppleTV.
That’s a separate +$20/month subscription. Good luck. pic.twitter.com/0FqmyWcMZ3
— Mohammad Usman Aijaz (@muaijaz) August 1, 2023
So yeah, everything is on fire in the Pac-12 which has everyone talking about realignment and new conferences with less than a month left until the regular season starts. Which really sucks because:
The Pac-12 is the best and most competitive conference in football this year.
It’s a shame that everything else is overshadowing that fact, because the conference is extremely deep, talented and could make for some very fun and exciting games.
Let’s start with the QB spot, where the conference has the deepest collection of talent in the country. Starting with reigning Heisman Trophy winner (and projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft) Caleb Williams, who looks to lead USC to its first College Football Playoff berth. With Lincoln Riley still dialing up the offense and Williams at the helm, USC is going to be exciting to watch … on offense (we’ll get to the defense later). Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. is a beneficiary of the extra COVID years and the transfer portal. After transferring from Indiana, he put together a fantastic year for the Huskies and could play himself into very serious NFL Draft conversations. On the outside, he has his top receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan returning, as well as head coach Kalen DeBoer. They might be one of the favorites to win the conference, but they’re going to have to go through Bo Nix and the Oregon Ducks. I didn’t think I’d be saying this in 2023, but Bo Nix is a serious Heisman candidate going into the upcoming season. The Ducks lost offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to Arizona State, but made an internal hire to keep the offense rolling. With Nix at the wheel, they’ll continue to be favorites.
Even outside of the top three, the QB depth in the conference is remarkable, and a reflection of the benefits behind the transfer portal and NIL. DJ Uiagalelei transfers to Oregon State from Clemson, Colin Schlee transferred from Kent State to UCLA, and of course, Shedeur Sanders transferred from Jackson State to Colorado, following his father Deion. On top of that, there are the returning QBs like Cameron Ward at Washington State (who is REALLY fun) and Cameron Rising at Utah, and incoming UCLA freshman Dante Moore was regarded in the same caliber as Arch Manning in his recruiting class. The QBs in this conference are diverse, and more importantly, really freaking good.
In addition, the Pac-12 is so fun because of the on-field storylines. Let’s start with Sanders and Colorado. Pretty much everyone on the roster is a transfer, including the aforementioned Shedeur Sanders and CB/WR/baller Travis Hunter. How the one-year roster turnover will impact their on-field performance is going to be interesting to watch in a conference as loaded as this one.
Utah is the reigning champions, mainly because coach Kyle Wittingham and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig have created an offense that batters the defenses in the Pac-12 into a paste. With QB Cameron Rising recovering from a knee injury, however, their odds for three-peating as champs are a little lower than years before. If Rising is healthy, then the team should go far in this conference.
Finally, Stanford is running an actual offense this year! David Shaw stepped down as head coach in the offseason, and in steps Troy Taylor, former head coach at Sacramento State. His offenses at the FCS level were prolific (go watch Sac-State vs. Incarnate Word in the FCS playoffs last year. Best game of 2022 and it was on at 2 am, it was like riding a motorcycle into Valhalla), and seeing Stanford with an almost new offensive philosophy should be fun this year, even if they might not be good instantly.
So, don’t let the impending end of the conference scare you away from caring or enjoying this conference. It’s still very good, very fun and deserves your attention.
