#big 10

RIP Pacific 12!

Upper photo Sather Tower, University of California, Berkeley taken in 1969; lower entrance to Red Square with statue of George Washington, University of Washington, Seattle, 2016.

While I am not a sports fan, having strong personal (Washington, Cal and UCLA) and familial (WSU where my great-grandmother was one of the first graduates, my sister and her husband both graduated, and my niece earned her Ph.D.) ties to four of the schools in the conference, I am saddened to learn that the Pacific 12 has effectively disbanded. It was "the conference of champions," and far western intraregional competition, especially between the PNW and California, was a source of local pride and affiliation. The Rose Bowl was the culmination with the best team from the Pac 12 (earlier Pac 8) playing the best of the Big 10 resulting in matches like Washington against Michigan. When the Pac 12 won it was the highlight of the sports year. Of course in those years Seattle and Portland had no pro teams, and the pay rates for college coaches were much lower.

With UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon joining the Big 10, that conference will extend coast to coast and include a large fraction of the big money college athletic programs. It includes a mixed bag of programs ranging from ones virtually always in the top positions in revenue sports to others of somewhat dubious prospects (as examples Rutgers or Northwestern). Whatever the cash value, there is likely to be little regional enthusiasm, at either end, for match ups like Oregon vs Maryland.

Academically the enlarged league is a mixed bag with second-rate state universities like Maryland and Rutgers against some of the best in the country. Left behind in the rump of the PAC 12 are two of the best universities in the country, Cal and Leland Stanford Junior University.