How to Fix the Pac-12

[FishDuck Article]

A lot of noise has been made about the ineptitude of the conference in which the Oregon Ducks play. From some random guy deciding when penalties should stand, to bowl game opt-outs and criminally poor refereeing in all sports, the Pac-12 has long been the worst that the Power Five has to offer. The conference took their first step toward ...

Read the full article here...

[BigDucksFan]

Excellent article Ryan, you hit the nail on the head with every sentence. Thanks for putting it together. 

Your point of the Pac-12 undoing the damage that Larry Scott has made (like you said) "is going to take a significant amount of time and effort" to correct, if it can be done at all. 

Your points of
     - the Pac-12 being out-recruited by the East,
     - going 6+ years without going to the playoffs,
     - getting the snot beat out of them in bowl games,
     - having fewer players taken in the NFL draft,
     - playing their games in the middle of the night,
     - having the best team in the Pac-12 being no better than the third or fourth best team in the SEC,
     - having incompetent refereeing in all sports,
points to the bulk of our problems that Larry Scott and the other Pac-12 leaders have put us in year after year. Yes, unfortunately Larry has not been the only problem over the years but the Pac-12 only has one other president to weed out still. (Can you guess who ??)

The way out of this mess is not going to be easy for Oregon fans to swallow. Having USC and Washington be better then they are now is not something that we fans will like, accept or enjoy but it has to happen for the Pac-12 to get back to respectability and back to the National Playoffs and a National Title. 

This choice of who will be Larry Scotts replacement is so darn important and it can't be wrong or the Pac-12 will implode and be gone for good. We will only get one chance at it and the nation of players and fans are watching.

 

[Ryan Robertson]

3 hours ago, BigDucksFan said:

Excellent article Ryan, you hit the nail on the head with every sentence. Thanks for putting it together. 

Your point of the Pac-12 undoing the damage that Larry Scott has made (like you said) "is going to take a significant amount of time and effort" to correct, if it can be done at all. 

Your points of
     - the Pac-12 being out-recruited by the East,
     - going 6+ years without going to the playoffs,
     - getting the snot beat out of them in bowl games,
     - having fewer players taken in the NFL draft,
     - playing their games in the middle of the night,
     - having the best team in the Pac-12 being no better than the third or fourth best team in the SEC,
     - having incompetent refereeing in all sports,
points to the bulk of our problems that Larry Scott and the other Pac-12 leaders have put us in year after year. Yes, unfortunately Larry has not been the only problem over the years but the Pac-12 only has one other president to weed out still. (Can you guess who ??)

The way out of this mess is not going to be easy for Oregon fans to swallow. Having USC and Washington be better then they are now is not something that we fans will like, accept or enjoy but it has to happen for the Pac-12 to get back to respectability and back to the National Playoffs and a National Title. 

This choice of who will be Larry Scotts replacement is so darn important and it can't be wrong or the Pac-12 will implode and be gone for good. We will only get one chance at it and the nation of players and fans are watching.

 

It didn't make it in the article, but the conference needs big games in the conference. Oregon played USC in the conference championship, it was the dream game for the conference but the game was completely irrelevant. They need the games to be more highly billed.

[Annie]

4 hours ago, BigDucksFan said:

...playing their games in the middle of the night...

I worry that this is only going to get worse, as the networks want to squeeze as many games possible into a day, and of course only West Coast teams are going to have home games starting 7pm or later Pacific time.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Annie

[MaiTaiDuck]

I think your a little over board about the PAC 12. Yes for sure Larry Scott in my opinion should have been fired 6 years ago and why PAC 12 presidents didn't see the writing on the wall is baffling at best. I don't believe one minute with a full season and off season of Football training can't elevate Oregon back to the top regardless if SC, or the Mutts get relevent. I would never want Washington to be better at anything because I just cannot ever see myself ever voting for them in anything pertaining to sports. Thanks for the info and I do agree mainly about Scott. He killed the conference but I don't believe it will never rebound with the right guy in charge. Anyone ever hear of Merton Hanks?

[Charles Fischer]

Whew!  A brutal article, but so true and while I do not like the thought of USC and Washington being better--you are right, Ryan.  Well done and THANKS.

[ICamel]

Loved that last sentence in your article Ryan! "Iron sharpens iron, as Mario Cristobal likes to say, but right now the Pac-12 is a conference full of wood."

[woundedknees]

"Punky Wood", at that... What us loggers kids (And some farm/ranch kids) liked to refer to as 'culls'.

[Ryan Robertson]

5 hours ago, MaiTaiDuck said:

I think your a little over board about the PAC 12. Yes for sure Larry Scott in my opinion should have been fired 6 years ago and why PAC 12 presidents didn't see the writing on the wall is baffling at best. I don't believe one minute with a full season and off season of Football training can't elevate Oregon back to the top regardless if SC, or the Mutts get relevent. I would never want Washington to be better at anything because I just cannot ever see myself ever voting for them in anything pertaining to sports. Thanks for the info and I do agree mainly about Scott. He killed the conference but I don't believe it will never rebound with the right guy in charge. Anyone ever hear of Merton Hanks?

I would say that Oregon might be able to squeak in to the playoff, sure, but it is going to have to be a 13-0 team. The perception is that bad at this point.

The only way that they won't have to be perfect and make the playoff is if the teams they play look better nationally. Stanford is in a down stretch, so we have to rely on the other historically notable teams, a la UW and USC. No one is going to take an oregon team beating a bad Stanford, a mediocre UW and a mediocre USC seriously. 

[BigDucksFan]

12 hours ago, Ryan Robertson said:

I would say that Oregon might be able to squeak in to the playoff, sure, but it is going to have to be a 13-0 team. The perception is that bad at this point.

The only way that they won't have to be perfect and make the playoff is if the teams they play look better nationally. Stanford is in a down stretch, so we have to rely on the other historically notable teams, a la UW and USC. No one is going to take an oregon team beating a bad Stanford, a mediocre UW and a mediocre USC seriously. 

Your so right. And to think it's been like "forever" since a Pac-12 team ran the table. 

[1Funduck]

Oh boy! Somebody is seething. There is not one thing you said that wasn't relevant. It all impacts the overall outcome. So, let me say I'm on board with the slap the PAC office mantra.  They deserve it.

To be fair, Oregon is at a point now that they can overcome any slight by the Commissioners office or the Pac for that matter. We love the coin but we have enough to make the moves. We have no problem bringing in talented players. We have won a playoff game with a middle of the road recruiting roster. We are back to back champions of the PAC. Played beautifully against a powerful Wisconsin team. Before all this dream coin came flowing in, USC was feared. UW garnered concerned eyebrow raises. Why? Their base is beyond rich. Their coaching was respectable to absurdly good. The recruits were stories of envy...from around the nation!

What happened? IMO, Carrol was a bad boy and USC has been paying the price ever since. It wasn't coin that made them irrelevant. It was Coaching. How else do you explain a top 10 average recruiting roster on the verge of collapse last year, every year? And UW? Ugh. Lets be honest. UW doesn't need outside money. They don't need better facilities. What's the problem? Coaching. Oregon is in the same templet. They have everything. They just had the youngest roster in all of CFB. They have a fine Coach and will lead the team to the playoffs. I believe a Championship game and win is on the immediate horizon. This is not a PAC-12 problem IMO.

Just look at Clemson. Garbage conference. But how did Clemson become so relevant? Does anyone believe their conference put them in a position to win? Hmmm. Just win. Oregon is on the Cusp. We all know it. That's not me talking with Green and Yellow glasses on, its simply a numbers game. Recruiting is top 10 with multiple top 5 players all over the field. Coaching is a bit reserved but promising some flair this coming year on both sides of the ball. Lets be clear. Oregon has the #1 DE, the #1ILB, the #4 I think #1, QB, the #4 CB..etc. Etc. Etc. We are loaded with top 10 talent. We got them in spite of the PAC 12 office.

I would take issue with the timing of games. Yes, I believe we need some prime time games showcasing the conference. The sweet spot is a 2:00 game. But to be fair, we are on the West coast. We sit 3 hrs behind Florida. Its just logistics. Ole Miss isn't going to play a 7:00pst game. That's 10:00 for them. I want all our games to be highlighters. But, we live on the West coast. The PAC is going to get more than its fair share of late games because we live in the PST.

You want more respect in the PAC? USC needs to stop losing to ND every stinking year. They need to thump'em. Its a built in relevance factor for the PAC. One highlighter like that can sway the national perception. Oregon needs to get over the 'almost made it' moniker. They need to not lose by any score, 3 points or 23. Go stinking Win.

Anytime, any place, anywhere. Just win. I put this on the Coaches....period. We neutered a Colorado team with a load of 2/3 stars. The PAC had nothing to do with that.  We played 7:00 games ad nauseum that year. Just Win, all the rest will take care of itself. But, I wouldn't turn down the coin either. Duck On!!

[Drake]

“Fixing” the PAC 12 will require time. Whomever had oversight of Larry Scott is also largely responsible for the problems that are being faced by the conference. Long term contracts, poorly managed expenditures, and ownership of a network that has not delivered the type of revenue projected, are signs that bad business decisions were made by more than one person. 

The conference needs capable leadership and oversight. The conference will be preparing to renegotiate network contracts in a few years. Therefore, it will see an increase in revenue from that source. However, while money can help eliminate red ink, it doesn’t solve all the issues faced by the conference. 

If money solved all issues in sports, Paul Allen’s Portland TrailBlazers would have won a championship. There are underlying issues that need to be managed beyond money. Whomever is hired will have their hands full. 
 

 

[duckcz]

Why should we care about the rest of the PAC-12? If we win out, we're in the playoff. End of story. For proof, just look at the ACC. Except for Clemson, the rest of the conference is hot garbage. That fact doesn't keep Clemson out of the playoffs, and actually probably helps them get in. Oregon is clearly becoming the Clemson of the PAC-12, rising head and shoulders above the rest of the conference in recruiting and on the field. It took Dabo 7.5 seasons to get to the playoffs.

Mario has only had 2.5 seasons and looks on track have Oregon in the playoffs much sooner than the 7.5 it took Swinney. I'll admit that the 9-game conference schedule and PAC-12 after dark games aren't doing us any favors. At the end of the day though, all that matters is what Oregon does. And we are on the verge of greatness my fellow Duckies. It took Dabo 8.5 seasons to win it all. I bet Mario does it in 5.5.