You need a time machine set back to 2019 to be able to view a Pac12 team win a bowl game. 0-2 in last year's abbreviated season, when they dramatically announced (and virtual signaled) that they were not going to play football and risk the health and safety of their athletes - till everyone else said "OK, see ya", and started playing. Then the conference suddenly got some magic potion or virus mask or something that made it OK to play. Then this year, a pitiful 0-5. Really should be 0-6 as UCLA cowardly backed out of their Holiday bowl game, after NC State's players and fans had already spent time and money to travel to the game. Their one hope of a bowl in in the Rose bowl collapsed in the 4th quarter as Utah folded up against OSU. As I watched OU dismember Oregon in the Alamo bowl, at one point in the 2nd quarter I wondered if I should be rooting for Oregon, as nothing good ever comes from an OU win. Then Oregon has its commercial for the school, and the virtue signaling was so deep you needed hip waders. So it was back to enjoying the slaughter. Truly a pitiful league, and the joke of conferences.
The PAC is pretty awful. No doubt. Easily the weakest football of the P5 conferences. Perhaps Bowlsby will become their commissioner after the B12 folds.
With a rant about various Berkley formed leadership, various legal cases he was involved in, and eventually slumping into a discussion of traffic patterns in the LA area. Good times!
You forgot to mention all the devastatingly clever "jokes" he'll make, like "Berzerkley" and "Cali-prune-ya".
Agree that conference is a joke in football. But Big Ten did the same thing in 2019, somehow it has not effected their football strength. Saban/Bama also did a woke virtue signaling advertisement last year and they seem to be OK.
I'd like to see the new Big 12 (-OU, UT / +BYU, Cinny, et al) vs the Pac 12. I think the new Big 12 will still be better than the Pac 12.
These things are cyclical. The P12 was the weakest of the P5 conferences the past few seasons but it will eventually have the pendulum swing in their direction. Too much talent on the West Coast (California) to be down too long. Bowl games are now a very poor way to measure conference strength as every team not in the BCS Championship is having key players bow out of the bowl game. P12 hasn't fared much better in OOC play but that's a better measure now. At least in those games the teams are generally playing at full strength...thus Oregon's win over OSU in the Horseshoe.
Underrated post. I think the new Big 12 will be a solid football conference. All the teams will be busting their tails trying to improve. It will be an exciting and fun ending to the conference.
No. A conference doesn't go bowl winless in two straight seasons, not have a NC since 2004, not play for one since 2014, and have the same number of playoff appearance as the AAC, and say it's just a cycle. That would be like Detroit saying "Sure Texas and Florida are all the rage now, but people will be coming back to Detroit any day now. You can't keep the Motor City down for long!" Yeah, pretty sure you can! For a multitude of reasons, the P12 is the joke of the college football world, where no one does less with more than they do. It's downright comical - as long as you're not vested with theses schools, in which case it's a downer.
Academically they are very good overall and put the SEC to shame. Berkeley has more books in its libraries than all those schools combined. Cal has more Nobel winners than Bama has NCs. They even have a parking lot restricted to Nobel winners. None of them played football though. Stanford is also excellent and most of the rest real good
That's all very well, and they probably have great women's rowing and quiddich teams too. They are still horrible in football.
This. I remember when the SWC was the best football conference in the country. Then, something happened on the way to the Cotton Bowl.
I doubt that. Lincoln hasn't done anything. He took over a top 5 OU team who was much worse when he left. They could have had 2 to 3 more losses this year and he saw the writing on the wall getting out at the right time. I think he'll find building a team much tougher sledding than taking over a completely solid team.
"Lincoln hasn't done anything"....hmmmm Well, i hate him also. But he is going to own the mountain and pacific times zones. Yes it will be like the rise of the Roman army.
The PAC is set up to be USC's plaything. Riley should (always a dangerous word) be able to dominate that conference. He already recruits Cali well, runs a wide-open offense, and has very few credible competitors to deal with.
While Mario went to Miami, I think Oregon will still be one of the top dogs out there. Also, Utah will be a challenge for USC. Even UCLA will give the Trojans some problems. I could be wrong, but I just don't see USC mopping the floor with the other PAC teams on an annual basis. It's a weird conference full of giant killers with near-break even records.
The PAC-12 is really the PAC-3+1 (Oregon, Utah, USC and UCLA as the plus 1 for basketball and beach volleyball). The real three could be factors in football for any conference given time. Except for beach volleyball, UCLA is the Kansas of the PAC-12. Texas, ou, oSu, and Tceh would have lifted the conference if nothing else providing some relief from the Pacific Time Zone schedules.
Maybe. If the newcomers join the conference before our move to the SEC, about the only team that would in be the new B(14) to lose would be Kansas if they play Oregon.