RIP Pac-12

The news broke this morning and I was equal parts relieved and sad. UW and UO will be formally accepting bids to join the Big 10 conference.

As a die-hard UW football fan, I’m really glad that we made it out and got invited to the “big league”. Our athletic department is no longer in jeopardy and we’ll be flush with more cash. At the end of the day, it was a neccessary move in order to stay relevant in major college sports.

Unfortunately, the Pac-12 looks to be dead at this point. Decades of history will be destroyed in the next few weeks as we align to the new age of college football. Everything seemed inevitable once USC made the decision to jump to the Big10 last year.

I feel awful for some of the other schools in the conference that will be left in limbo. Cal and Stanford may still make it to the Big10. The Arizona schools and Utah will move to the Big12 and stay somewhat relevant. But for WSU and OSU, they’ll be in a tough position and likely destined for the Mountain West. They’ll be in a dire financial situation and this all but puts them out of the Power 5 conversation and out of Power 5 money.

It’s really sad. I’ve had a lot of issues with the Pac-12 especially over the last year. It was mismanaged and has largely been a disaster. But there is a lot of history there. College football as we know it is over and we’ve officially entered the new age. I’m glad we get to participate.