Final PAC-12 Final

[RedStickHusky]

Almost feel like they should've given UCLA a bye to the final. Hard to believe this is the last PAC-12 game ever.

 

[bendm]

i dont get the ucla thing but yes its tragic

 

[RedStickHusky]

i dont get the ucla thing but yes its tragic

The history -- to a guy my age, UCLA defined west coast hoops.

 

[BugsyCT]

Are Wash St & Oregon St really gonna be the Pac-2 next year? Where are they going?

 

[NH Husky]

Personally, I think WSU and OSU should keep the name alive, invite a good chunk of Mountain West, and ride out the stupidity that conference realignment has become.

 

[NH Husky]

And. Add UConn as a football only member

 

[NH Husky]

And. Add UConn as a football only member, Gonzaga as a basketball member

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

It's sad to see the demise of what had been the premiere west coast conference in basketball, baseball, football, and track. Many stars, HOF members, politicians, Olympians, and trailblazers came from the PAC(8) later PAC-12. The names are who's who in the pantheon of sports. Some can go back to recent years, while many of us can go back to the early 20th century. Names like John Wayne, yes he played football before acting, the immortal Jackie Robinson, football and baseball, Olympic gold winning pole vaulter Bob Seagren, countless Heisman winners from USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, etc, the incomparable run of UCLA'S basketball teams in the 60's and 70's, HOF coach Wooden, players like Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazard, Lew Alcindor (Kareem), Walton, and tha list goes on. In the late 60's and early 70's, it was written in several sports magazines that the NCAA tournament was called the UCLA invitational. There was even a cultural event that still lives on in PAC-12 lore. The Stanford-California football game in the 70's, when the band came on the field, and nearly disrupted the ending, and the trombone player was run over. These and countless other players, coaches, teams made up the premiere west coast conference, that sadly is NO MORE.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The college sports powers that be will regret taking out the Pac 12, for two reasons.

1) College sports is unique among entertainment products in that the fanbase for each school is almost completely non-transferrable. It's not like any of us are going to wake up one day and be Syracuse fans if UConn is no longer allowed to participate at the highest levels. Most of us will just go away as fans of the sport, and the rest will become casual fans, and slowly drift. Getting new fans from the Northeast will become increasingly difficult for the sport without UConn. Now multiply this times every school the P2 are trying to push out competing at the highest level.

2) The product in college athletics is the game, not the team. This is something that some in the sport get, but the University Presidents do not. That difference, while subtle, is important. Rivalries that took decades to build, and get fans to care about, have been ripped apart in the last 13 years, and you are seeing signs that the fan base, and especially the casual fan base, is wobbling. These rivalries are what get casual fans to a mid January game to watch two NIT bound teams. Who is going to care about Washington vs. Iowa in January for basketball? Or Arizona State vs. Cincinnati? The diehards will show up or tune in, but they are 20-30% of the fanbase depending on the school. The casual fans won't show up in the same numbers or watch because they won't know who these opponents are and many won't care.

College sports is also unique in that it is essentially the only minor league in the world that generates major league-caliber revenue. Most business people would look at such a fragile dynamic, and choose NOT to mess with it at all. University Presidents decided to go for a land grab instead. The tipping point in marketing any product can happen quickly, and without warning. We may find that in 5 or 10 years, college sports is a shadow of what it is today, and this event will be one of the milestones in making that happen if it does.

 

[Figurehead]

Personally, I think WSU and OSU should keep the name alive, invite a good chunk of Mountain West, and ride out the stupidity that conference realignment has become.

FYI, Oregon State and Washington State will join the West Coast Conference as affiliate members and play league games — with the exception of football and baseball — against WCC schools for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.