The Kamikaze Kid

If Cal and Furd would just stay put, the Pac could add SD St, Fresno St, UNLV, Boise St and maybe even SMU and Tulane. If Apple still wants it's foot in the door for College sports, they should give the Pac a decent offer to be their guinea pig. If they could get a deal in the $15M range, that would at least stabilize the Pac and help them keep their football staffs together. Their would still be potential for 2-4 teams being able to crack the top 25 with some good western media markets. Again it's Cal and Furds sense of elitism that is gumming the entire thing up. I'm still rooting for the Pac to survive this situation and think OSU and WSU deserve better than this.

Seems like the B12 is really whiffing on expansion. CU, AU and ASU have just been about as dormant as can be in football for a long time. OSU seems to have a long term coach that could keep a team in play for the top 25 for the next decade. WSU actually has better media support than the schools the B12 brought in. When all is said and done, I think they will have bloated themselves on empty carbs and passed up the real meat and potatoes that were out there to be had.

I love the new rivalry that has developed with Utah. The past few years, the stakes have always been high for both teams every time they've played. I'll miss it and hope we see them again in the playoffs in the future.

Let's face it. Since Troy Dye left, the D has been a major disappointment. Last year, Lanning found out that his complex defensive scheme was too complex for the players to absorb in one year and he had to simplify it and take many of the wrinkles out. He was also mostly working with guys that weren't brought in to run it. This year, I think he's been able to expand the simplified system back to it's original complex state and is now working with a group of players that are the right type to run it. The turn around has the potential to be drastic and elevate the UO into playoff contention right away. But until we actually see some on field results, potential is all that it is. I'm not going to hold it against people who want to see it before they believe it. However, I do think there is something to believe in this year.

Yes, avoid the team that gave you your only loss. The same team you wanted to avoid by changing conferences. The same team you wanted your new conference to avoid bringing in. The same team that will live rent free in your head no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

And Cliff's interception was good!

Great article. I think the next step in the realignment carousel is supper conferences getting rid of dead weight at contract renegotiation time.What happens if Fox tells the BIG that they'll pay $100M per school for the top 14 media teams if they add 4-6 top ACC teams but drop the bottom 4 media teams? If not, then it's just let's say it's $60M each for everybody. What would they do? I'd expect this to happen in the next go round in 2030. I think the media giants won't want bloated 24+ school conferences with a bunch of light weights glutting them up. They will most likely want the biggest bang for the buck. At that point, I'd assume that the SEC/ BIG would be the varsity conferences with 36-40 schools. The ACC remnants and AAC merge as do the B12/ Pac/ MWC for a JV level. The remaining conferences will either drop to a freshman team type status or just drop to a lower division all together. I don't like this direction for college sports but that seems to me to be the direction that it's heading.

Was Dilly the offensive mastermind that brought the offense back to life, or was it a sleeping giant that Lanning woke back up? Is Lanning an over rated defensive coordinator that held a clipboard for Kirby Smart, or has he rebuilt the terrible Duck D into a Georgia esque machine? Year two will go a long way to answering these questions. If I'm a legit five star recruit, I'd want to get a sense of understanding before committing. This may be the most important season for UO in a very long time coming up. 12-1 and playoff bound, expect the five star flood gates to open. 8-4 with the same problems on D as last year, expect a flood of decommits. I think the pond is more than half full and the Ducks win the Pac, make the playoffs and head to the BIG as THE team to join.

Ultimately, it is all shaking out to true school value. The BIG level schools are heading to the BIG, The B12 level schools are heading to the B12. The MWC level schools will be joining/ merging with the MWC. The independent minded schools will be going independent.

The problem with Furd is they are that kid all the other kids looked up to and tried to emulate. ASU, WSU, OSU and the rest, all got to feel like the Ivy League west just by being associated with them. Furd's sense of self spilled over to the rest of the conference and seriously clouded their judgement. It is no coincidence that the B12 destroyed the Pac. First they didn't have schools worthy enough to bring into the Pac when any of them would have jumped at the opportunity. Then the B12 did the unthinkable and brought in some lowly G5 schools to replace Texas and OU. Then while the Pac demanded $50M per school in a media deal, the B12 swooped in and grabbed the $30M that was being offered. Then the Pac still held it's nose up about adding schools even while all the alarm bells were going off. Even now, Furd is still the anchor around the Pac's neck as it tries to do anything to avoid going under.The only way they got that much power is they where the school everybody else wanted to be. If the Pac had the humility and awareness that the B12 displayed, they would be the undisputed third best conference in the country right now and it wouldn't be close.

It won't matter what ingenious plan Luck comes up with because it just won't be good enough for Cal and Furd it keep those Ivy League west feelings alive. WSU and Beavs would be smart to tell them to either go independent now or just hold their nose and go along with whatever plan starts taking shape.The Pac could still cobble together some top 40 football and B Ball schools and squeak by as a legit power 5 conference but it won't happen if all plans get the thumbs down for not being high status enough.

SUC vs fuskies in the Delusion Bowl. Perfect! Expect UO vs Utah in the real thing.

Great article.The fall of the PAC is such an epic tragic comedy, Shakespeare could not have written it any better.

I'd say reality has been checked.

In the end, the only thing that tied the room together was the rug.

The biggest surprise for me is how not surprised I am by the epic incompetence of Pac leadership at every step of the way towards implosion.It's as if they were writing a how to book on destroying your own conference.

I agree it will have an impact. Those currently on teams that don't want that much travel can always portal out. Future athletes that don't want to deal with that much travel can always find some where else to go to school. It may effect the records of non revenue sports more but I think the big three will have minimal impact but we'll see.

I think the currant Pac ? leaders need a tough love intervention about arrogance and humility then suggest moving forward with an SD St, SMU, Fresno St, UNLV offer. As to the steep payments required for leaving, I'm sure some sort of negotiation could be worked out. Maybe partial payments with home and home series with each remaining MW team for a few years? A good negotiator could make it happen. Pac humility would be the key.

In another post on a similar topic, I mentioned the Pac 4 needs to bring in someone who actually knows what they're doing and relegate GK to the kids table or fire him on the spot. I hope this is that move. SD St and SMU are still there for the taking. Also bring in Fresno St and UNLV and you're at eight schools with three of them potential top 25 football teams. They would have markets in the bay area, SoCal, Las Vegas and Dallas. Not bad. That should be enough to stabilize for now and maybe even bring in some dissatisfied B12 teams in the next go around.

If the rest of the Pac had invested as much time effort and cash as the Ducks have the last 15-20 years in building up both their brand and teams, maybe someone would have been interested in broadcasting their games. Expecting the Ducks to bury themselves in an Apple streaming subscription wasteland when they had better options, is ridiculous. I feel bad for the Beavs but joining the Mountain West or some sort of Pac/ MW merger may not be so bad.

Agreed. I'm all in on the BIG at this point. There is a part of me that feels sorry for the WSU and OSU but their leadership also said some of the worst most clueless "Everything's fine. Don't worry." quotes out there.

GK being in over his head is pretty clear at this point. It also needs to be asked how the heck could the Pac Prez's all let "negotiations" drag on for so long without even inquiring about progress or numbers? Can anybody imagine a similar situation playing out with the SEC or the BIG? I mean, they had just been completely played by smooth talking Larry, USC and UCLA then left, and then they put out a series of unity statements and confident quotes without the slightest knowledge that nothing is actually happening? This may be the most significant gross incompetence of leadership I have ever witnessed. Who puts the entire fate of their multi billion dollar conference in the hands of an unproven new guy without the slightest oversight? How do you feel confident in progress with nothing more than an "Everything's going fine. Nothing to see here."? The conference leaders got exactly what they deserved but the teams, athletes and fans got screwed. Seems to me there is some serious explaining that still needs to be done.

The Ducks are going to need a bigger bulletin board to handle all this material SUC has given them.

Some thoughts; Cal and Furds arrogance has been, still is and will be the downfall of the Pac as long as they're members. This just squanders a potentially huge bay area media market which does nothing positive in media deal negotiations. If they leave for the ACC, consider it a blessing in disguise. GK is an anchor around the Pac's neck. He is clearly in way over his head and the thought of the Pac being stuck paying him 3.5M a year to stay in over his head, ouch. SD St and SMU should already be Pac members. Leaving SD St hang out to dry for no reason is inexcusable and again shows that GK is in over his head. Right now, the Pac could be at six members and just needing a couple more to stabilize at eight would be much more doable providing Cal and Furds arrogance didn't get in the way. Just bringing in UNLV and Fresno St shouldn't be that hard. Bring in someone else to negotiate a media deal. If you can't get rid of GK and his 3.5M a year contract, then put him at the kids table and bring in a legit negotiator to get something done. Ride the Beavs football success for media negotiations. OSU should continue to be a top 25 team this year and a favorite to be one next year and in to the future. SD St and Fresno ST should also. I'd wait until after football season to try to find a new deal highlighting these teams along within the new Vegas and Dallas markets. The Pac's future is still possible but the leadership that remains may be it's downfall.

If the Ducks D becomes legit sooner than later then #2 seems reasonable. Until the D proves itself #5 seems fair.