Pac 12
Pac 12 versus the Big Ten
Growing up in Southern California, Christmas day was bright and sunny. New Year’s Day was much the same. Unlike the middle of the country which was generally gray and cold. The New Year’s Day Rose Parade was always a special event as we gathered in my father’s office to watch the parade. My mother would prepare a special breakfast with all our favorite items from Jurgensen’s Market, a specialty market in Pasadena. It was to foreshadow things to come as it was forced to close its doors some years ago.
The Rose Bowl was a particularly special event as we had strong allegiances to the Pac 12, especially USC, UCLA, Stanford and Oregon. What was particularly pleasing to us was watching Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler walking up and down the sideline, furious that their “three yards in a cloud of dust” could not compete with the passing show of the Pac 12. Those two had a combined Rose Bowl record of 7-14. The boys from the Midwest were bedazzled by the sun, warm weather, Disneyland and Hollywood. Only to return home to the cold and snow. Obviously it was not always a losing effort but it seemed to happen more often than not.
And now it is over…..
There is lots of talk about the inevitability of the collapse of the Pac 12. But the real loss is the intense rivalry that the Pac 12 had within its group of universities and the fact that the conference has won more championships than any of the competing conferences. But alas the conference has imploded under the weight of their inability to keep up with the times. Sadly, it is a perfect example of how money and power has managed to strip away the fun and history of this storied athletic conference and the incredible institutions that occupy it. Gone are the days of the student athlete and instead we are left with the massive communication enterprises of Fox and ESPN. It is a sad day indeed that money and gambling are the institutions we have elevated over these institutions of higher learning and the sports teams that represent the best of sporting competition.
This conference was asleep and now we are left with the odds makers. A sad exchange that represents the frailty of rich cultural heritage in exchange for the ephemeral nature of money and gambling.
RIP Pac12