The Kamikaze Kid

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.

I think the UO offensive scheme is more of a collaborative concoction than the plan of the OC. That's at least what Lanning said about last years offense, with Lanning himself adding some wrinkles by knowing things that stress a defense. With that said, I'm sure Stein will be more than up to the challenge but being a great Kelly like mastermind may not even be required. I also think because of the collaborative nature of the offensive design that Dilly may have been way over rated as a mastermind and was promoted way to early in his career. I think ASU will continue to struggle and not take the next step leap people are expecting. 40+ points a game seems reasonable for this team and if the new and improved D can keep teams in the low 20's, a playoff spot may not be a far fetched dream.

Fred I love your input in the forum. Keep up the good work. USC's championship in 2017 should have been a "we're back!" moment but it was not. Since then, they have managed to lose a couple Pac championships to both Utah and the UO but that has not stopped them from claiming to be the undisputed Pac Kings regardless of what reality says. Also. SUC wondering why the BIG would want the team with the most Pac championships by far in the last fifteen years is laughable. Even if you combined the Pac championships of the other BIG/Pac teams together it would be: UO 6 SUC/ fuskies/ UCLA 4

With all of this chest pounding SUC has been doing lately I decided to compile a list of Pac Championships the last fifteen years with five year breakdowns. And to nobody's surprise, SUC barely makes a ripple. But there is a clear front runner and who could that be? Some folks down south are not going to like it. PAC 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022-08 LAST FIVE YEARS 2 Utah 2021-22 2 UO 2019-20 1 UW 2018 LAST TEN YEARS 3 UO 2019-20, 2014 2 Utah 2021-22 2 UW 2018, 2016 2 Stanford 2015, 2013 1 USC 2017 LAST FIFTEEN YEARS 6 UO 2019-20, 2014 2011-09 3 Stanford 2015, 2013-12 2 Utah 2021-22 2 UW 2018, 2016 2 USC 2017, 2008

If the BIG doesn't go to pods and keeps an open eighteen team conference schedule, I think the SUC fans are yapping themselves into becoming a secondary rival with the Ducks trapping themselves into yearly games with the UO.

Great take. I think both Apple and Fox were watching the implosion of Disney/ ESPN and just thought they were competing against no one. Fox just sat back and waited for the Pac to fall apart then got UO and fuskies at bargain prices. Apple thought they could low ball the Pac because there was no competition because Fox was just sitting back waiting and ESPN is firing thousands of employees. If Apple was serious, they would have made the offer even bigger than the B12 offer rewarding the Pac for being a guinea pig in the streaming world. Also the Pac presidents failed to even check in on negotiations the entire time and find out that GK was failing miserably but they were fine with being blown a bunch of smoke about how well everything was going.

Just checked out their 24/7 board and they had a topic titled "Stop the Oregon Fear"!

First, can't they just play the games that are already scheduled and fill in their schedules around them? Second, at this point the Beav's should take any opportunity they can to play a top dollar game against a ranked team. Just saying.

QB2 is the perpetual Achilles heel of the Ducks. Sure hope they have one this year.

With our addition bring the number to eighteen, I think they're going to need a minute to figure things out. They were planning on doing away with divisions but may need to go back to that plan now. To be continued.....