As a WSU alum, I certainly don’t feel bad for the USC fan. He might not have pulled the trigger himself, but their fans have been quick to kick us to the curb without a second thought just like their university administration did.
Fortunately, I got to watch a bowl game a couple days ago that screamed brotherhood. Of course, now the screams are quickly turning to “show me the money”.
It might be the ‘younger fans’ that most vocally kicked the PAC2 to the curb? This UW and Gen X fan didn’t. I lament the breakup of the PAC and wish it could be reconstructed. Perhaps I’m not alone among the older fanbase. Most of my friends feel the same. Bringing the old PAC back is a wish though. That ship sailed and left me also, less interested.
And it may be just for the time being. The year was 1959 and two things happened that year. First, WSC became WSU. Second, the Pacific Coast Conference imploded. UW, USC, USC, Stanford and Cal were all guilty of recruiting irregularities and maintaining slush funds of various sorts for players. That year, the cheating five formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities. Idaho, WSU, Oegon and Oregon State were kicked to the curb. But nine years later, the Pac-8 was reformed and except for the Vandals, back together again playing a full conference schedule. I suspect the same thing will happen again when all the TV deals go up for renewal in 2030 or 2031. I am reading where there is a move afloat to do away with the conferences for football and have a single superconference with 64 teams in 4 separate regions. Anyone and everyone not in the $EC or B1G would be all for that. I can see a scenario where travel and rivalries return to a state of normalcy. And it may extend past then. I just hope I'm still alive to see it.
So when everyone said a 108 year old conference died two seasons ago, us old farts want to stick a big asterisk to that one. An almost 50 year old conference went the way of the passenger pidgeon July 1, 2024.
Merry Christmas to Mary and you and Go Cougs, buddy!
Legislation from a congressional body that can’t run a 1 car parade? Think that one over for a few minutes. The answer will come from university administrators who will agree to reel in the athletic department financing and governance. The tail wagging the dog will be reversed. Its the only credible long term solution to maintain the ethical integrity of universities and their athletic departments.
They’ve shown no propensity to go there yet. Until the money dictates it at the Big 10 and SEC level I’d say the rest of us are flailing around. It might not happen legislatively. I just don’t see the chosen few giving up a dime until forced to.
I don't think the tail is wagging the dog. Point 1- the NCAA, one of the more incompetent and corrupt organizations in the free world is run by the University presidents, at least on paper. Point 2- the presidents have allowed all this to happen, at the very least. Many have actually pushed it. Point 3- allowing young people to damage their bodies but not compensating them was pushed by the presidents. Then they pushed raising prices and charging license fees and all the reast. Try to find evidence of integrity among the presidents on almost any issue.
I’ve switched viewing mostly over to basketball, although this is starting to see the same as football. That said, a five man squad is easier to finance and stay March-competitive compared to a 70 man gridiron team. I have a kid at Gonzaga now so we watch Zags as much as we can, and I’m excited this will keep me connected to the PAC!
This article explains why I was so tuned into Montana/Montana State over the weekend. The other games felt boring by comparison. And I think it’s safe to say that “The Brawl of the Wild” has become a better rivalry than both the Civil War and Apple Cup in a span of less than two years, all because of the actions of the ADs at Oregon and UDub.
2.8 million people tuned into ABC to watch this thrilling FCS semi-final game. That game will be talked about for years. One can only hope that that rivalry doesn't go the way of Notre Dame v USC.
No, the civil war and apple cup are better because of the chance the Cougs or Beavs will knock the obnoxious ducks or dawgs out of a bowl or potential CFP spot!
You are very wrong. UW vs Oregon was a thousand times more interesting than a blowout Civil War & a lopsided Apple Cup. Oregon had to win the game in Seattle or probably had zero chance for the Playoffs. BTW the battle in Seattle was a hard hitting well played contest.# be smarter than the magnitude of the game..
ESPN is the worst. I never listen to their telecasts of college football, because their announcers are the worst, in my opinion. Many of them do not have an announcers voice. Why is the Hawaii Bowl at 5:00 Christmas Eve? That had to be the worst time ever! A lot happens Christmas Eve, but football should not be one of them in the evening on Christmas Eve!
I don't ever listen to ESPN these days. I watch the games because I have no choice but never listen to the pre or post game banter. I go to Netflix to get away from them.
Why is the game at 5 pm. on Christmas Eve? Because millions of people are at home, with nothing else to watch on TV.
The Hawaii tourism board wants homebound mainlanders to dream about going to sunny, warm Hawaii, so it sponsors a 3.5-hour commercial in the firm of a football game.
The same reason the Rose Bowl was at 5 p,m. EST on NY Day when I was growing up. Because people are at home and that makes for a huge TV audience.
It's always been about the money, just not at blatant as it is today.
The opposite of love in not hate, but indifference. It is becoming BORING. Ducks vs Ohio State? Yawn. Georgia vs Alabama. zzzzz. The only excitement now is rooting for underdogs. But who is going to spend 3 hours to watch UCLA vs Rutgers, or Stanford vs Wake Forest? Greed is an ugly thing, and I blame greed for ruining such a beautiful sport. I blame ESPN, Fox, conference commissioners, and Phil Knight. They all have blood on their hands. In the meantime, the best way to show your indifference is to turn the TV off
Couldn't agree more. I barely watch anymore regardless of the conference or team. I only want the final score to validate my betting claims. The drama and greed drive me away.
CFB reminds me of that classic Far Side cartoon where a couple of fishermen are looking from their boat out to the horizon where a big mushroom cloud is blooming into the sky. One looks at the other and says, "You know what this means Earl. No size restrictions and screw the limits".
Sure, there is a lot wrong with college athletics and universities in general. As a university professor (first at Oklahoma now at Gonzaga) and academic administrator, I can only chuckle as I remember the overwhelming pressure universities have had over the past 20+ years to run our institutions like businesses. Well, how is that working out? But, watching Dan Lanning talk to his team in the propaganda videos UO releases after wins, I recognise something. He is a teacher. What he is doing with those players is not too different to what I am doing with my students in my classes and what dedicated professors (not all of them, for sure) are doing in their teaching work. Teaching life skills through a specific subject, with a great deal of care and intentionality for helping young people grow. As long as college football coaches and staff continue to care about the players--whether they are in a program for a 1 year or for 5 years--all is not lost.
Great piece. Spot on. Love the term "campus pimps" to describe the presidents and ADs who are responsible for this mess. Sadly, the college football that we've known and loved for so many years has been corrupted almost beyond recognition. Now the main goal is to feed the beast.
I still watch the games, but I'm often holding my nose.
Great article. My wife started reading me another ESPN piece about the great college football stories of the last 25 years. Then she wanted to know why I wasn't paying attention. I told her I just didn't care that much any more. What is the point of any sport where victory is a transactional purchase. That is professional athletics. I could care less how much Uncle Phil can pay to win (or LSU or THE Ohio State or any other program).
Great article. The conference implosions is what turned me off, as well as the constant need for more money.
Like your Kodak poster, I was similarly engaged growing up, not only following WSU but everyone in the conference. The Pac-10 was my league. I recall buying a Pac-10 t-shirt at the WSU bookstore, proud of all the school's symbols on the shirt. I thought we were all in this together. I guess not.
When academic schools Cal and Stanford yell from the mountain tops that they're the smartest, then send all their athletes out of the classroom to take east coast trips, that's just hypocrisy.
I'm barely hanging in as a fan. I'm not against the new Pac-12, I just don't like the constant money grab and arrogant college presidents, who keep demanding more alumni money, while at the same time jacking up student tuition.
We have a tendency in this country to monetize the soul out of everything. When will it be enough?
On Christmas Eve, a peaceful and reflective night, we will focus on being together. The best gift as a child was never the presents, it was listening to my dad and uncle play Christmas songs on their acoustic guitars after dinner.
Right on cue, dad has arrived for our small family gathering and he quickly picked up the guitar we have and tuned it. Maybe I’ll get him to play a song tonight.
Happy Christmas to you John and your family. I’m glad you are writing the quiet part out loud.
This might sound strange - as a Penn State fan and writer, I have been living and covering this my entire life and I can tell you it didn't turn out good.
Growing up and in my youth, Penn State played Pitt on Thanksgiving and typically WVU sometime in October. Pepper in Boston College and Syracuse to go along with Maryland, Temple, and Rutgers you had a feel of a slate of games.
Penn State joined the Big Ten and things were different - branded "Unrivaled" - it has never fully been a clean entry and were 30+ year in.
Manufactured rivalries aren't there, I can tell you Minnesota (Governor's Victory Bell) and Michigan State (Land Grant) don't have it.
But what is really disheartening is seeing Pitt in the ACC and WVU in the Big XII - I am within 2.5 hours of each and I can be in three different power conferences, yet they don't meet.
When you win big, you enjoy the wins, but when you lose there is very little to cling to.
As you cover UO, it is high times for sure, but when things get tough it is when you will feel it.
There's a larger more fundamental problem here. . Universities, and college sports, are merely collateral damage.
There used to be a degree of balance in our capitalistic society. There were guardrails. Integrity and community service were widely valued. That has all become laughable in the headlong pursuit of more and more wealth by the wealthiest among us. How ludicrous is it that Elon Musk demands a trillion dollar bonus and our Supreme Court just said that was perfectly OK, overturning the lower court.
So is it any wonder that sports for the masses is just one of the casualties? We can rage at the darkness, but billionaires, and their corporate toys, are in control now.
Boy, you nailed it! I'm just aghast at the greed being demonstrated by the ultrarich today with no regard for society whatsoever. I recommended in this space a week or so ago that people read Roxane Dunbar's "An Indigenous People's History of the U.S." to understand how greed became the central operating principle of our society. She isn't overstating it by much when she says "Before the white man came here, the land belonged to everybody; after that, it became PRIVATE PROPERTY". And how can there be enough sycophants out there to do all these things at their behest, like tearing down the WH and denigrating the Kennedy Center. As long as there's enough money in it,, people will apparently do anything. I think after all these years, Bernie's message about the oligarchs is finally coming onto the radar of the average person.
You and Berny, who never held a job until he became a politician after he was 50, wouldn’t recognize an oligarchy if it bit you in the behind. The only true oligarchy in the USA is politics where the Democrats and Republicans totally control the political process.
I have no sympathy for USC fans or anything related to USC. That's the school that lit the match to set the PAC-12 on fire. It's also a program that has broken the rules for decades and pretty much done whatever it could to give itself an advantage in football regardless of the consequences to its academic reputation or the welfare of any other members of its community. Those of us who aren't USC fans or alums can only take delight in the failure of USC to remain relevant and for its few remaining traditions to die. On the other hand, those fans and alums who have supported USC football over the years are complicit in everything that's gone awry in college sports. There is no greater villain in the world of intercollegiate sports than USC and anyone associated with USC should feel nothing but shame.
This is ridiculously off-base and overly simplistic. The individual SC fan is not culpable or complicit. They had as much control over this as I did when my Beavs were left behind. And no, the SC on my user name does not stand for Southern Cal.
I'm an SC grad and long-time fan who hated the destruction
of the Pac12 and subsequent events and there is no one I blame more than the USC president. In your eyes, however, I "should feel nothing but shame" and accept
complicity "in everything that's gone awry in college sports."
Very sorry to disappoint you, but I don't. Evidently you're not one for nuance.
Bill, I am an OSU alum and lived in Newport Beach for over 35 years. Many of my neighbors and good friends were USC alumni. My very long time business partner went to USC on a basketball scholarship. I attended a lot of USC games at the Coliseum and loved the USC/UCLA rivalry from the mid 80's to the 90's. My sense is that every serious USC fan would go back to the old PAC 12 structure in a hearbeat. In my mid this was completely a Mike Bohn dirven scenario. True USC fans appreciated the PAC 12 conference!!
When your school was destroying the PAC-12, what actions did you take? Did you complain to the administration, cancel your season ticket package or stop your contributions? If you did nothing, you’re complicit.
I used to be the highest level of Booster at an SEC school that has won national championships in football, basketball, and baseball but I’m now out. I know longer get joy from the games. I’m cheering for a uniform because the players come and go. It’s a hopeless feeling. The worst part is that the NCAA could have headed this off when they lost the Obannon lawsuit. Instead, they stuck their collective heads in the sand and we are the ones paying the price.
Are you possibly referring to the famous Jim Healy radio show out take of years ago? I think it was Jerome Brown who posed the question and I believe he said "Japanese."
As a WSU alum, I certainly don’t feel bad for the USC fan. He might not have pulled the trigger himself, but their fans have been quick to kick us to the curb without a second thought just like their university administration did.
Fortunately, I got to watch a bowl game a couple days ago that screamed brotherhood. Of course, now the screams are quickly turning to “show me the money”.
It might be the ‘younger fans’ that most vocally kicked the PAC2 to the curb? This UW and Gen X fan didn’t. I lament the breakup of the PAC and wish it could be reconstructed. Perhaps I’m not alone among the older fanbase. Most of my friends feel the same. Bringing the old PAC back is a wish though. That ship sailed and left me also, less interested.
That could definitely be the case. Who really won then if most of the fans feel this way? ESPN and FOX. For the time being….
And it may be just for the time being. The year was 1959 and two things happened that year. First, WSC became WSU. Second, the Pacific Coast Conference imploded. UW, USC, USC, Stanford and Cal were all guilty of recruiting irregularities and maintaining slush funds of various sorts for players. That year, the cheating five formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities. Idaho, WSU, Oegon and Oregon State were kicked to the curb. But nine years later, the Pac-8 was reformed and except for the Vandals, back together again playing a full conference schedule. I suspect the same thing will happen again when all the TV deals go up for renewal in 2030 or 2031. I am reading where there is a move afloat to do away with the conferences for football and have a single superconference with 64 teams in 4 separate regions. Anyone and everyone not in the $EC or B1G would be all for that. I can see a scenario where travel and rivalries return to a state of normalcy. And it may extend past then. I just hope I'm still alive to see it.
So when everyone said a 108 year old conference died two seasons ago, us old farts want to stick a big asterisk to that one. An almost 50 year old conference went the way of the passenger pidgeon July 1, 2024.
Merry Christmas to Mary and you and Go Cougs, buddy!
We can hope for a return to normalcy with a super conference of 64. But that probably will take lawsuits and legislation to happen.
Merry Christmas to all the Howard family!! Go Cougs!!
Legislation from a congressional body that can’t run a 1 car parade? Think that one over for a few minutes. The answer will come from university administrators who will agree to reel in the athletic department financing and governance. The tail wagging the dog will be reversed. Its the only credible long term solution to maintain the ethical integrity of universities and their athletic departments.
They’ve shown no propensity to go there yet. Until the money dictates it at the Big 10 and SEC level I’d say the rest of us are flailing around. It might not happen legislatively. I just don’t see the chosen few giving up a dime until forced to.
I don't think the tail is wagging the dog. Point 1- the NCAA, one of the more incompetent and corrupt organizations in the free world is run by the University presidents, at least on paper. Point 2- the presidents have allowed all this to happen, at the very least. Many have actually pushed it. Point 3- allowing young people to damage their bodies but not compensating them was pushed by the presidents. Then they pushed raising prices and charging license fees and all the reast. Try to find evidence of integrity among the presidents on almost any issue.
I’ve switched viewing mostly over to basketball, although this is starting to see the same as football. That said, a five man squad is easier to finance and stay March-competitive compared to a 70 man gridiron team. I have a kid at Gonzaga now so we watch Zags as much as we can, and I’m excited this will keep me connected to the PAC!
This article explains why I was so tuned into Montana/Montana State over the weekend. The other games felt boring by comparison. And I think it’s safe to say that “The Brawl of the Wild” has become a better rivalry than both the Civil War and Apple Cup in a span of less than two years, all because of the actions of the ADs at Oregon and UDub.
FCS is still out there
Surprised you agree with laying the blame on UW and UO. SC and the greedy presidents of the PAC12?
2.8 million people tuned into ABC to watch this thrilling FCS semi-final game. That game will be talked about for years. One can only hope that that rivalry doesn't go the way of Notre Dame v USC.
Washington vs Oregon>better than civil war & Apple cup.
No, the civil war and apple cup are better because of the chance the Cougs or Beavs will knock the obnoxious ducks or dawgs out of a bowl or potential CFP spot!
Right. This years UO-WU was a real thriller. I don't think most people in either place showed much enthusiasm.
You are very wrong. UW vs Oregon was a thousand times more interesting than a blowout Civil War & a lopsided Apple Cup. Oregon had to win the game in Seattle or probably had zero chance for the Playoffs. BTW the battle in Seattle was a hard hitting well played contest.# be smarter than the magnitude of the game..
Really?
I see your point. I was referencing the loss of two great intrastate rivalries, but yeah for now Washington-Oregon is still a good rivalry.
ESPN is the worst. I never listen to their telecasts of college football, because their announcers are the worst, in my opinion. Many of them do not have an announcers voice. Why is the Hawaii Bowl at 5:00 Christmas Eve? That had to be the worst time ever! A lot happens Christmas Eve, but football should not be one of them in the evening on Christmas Eve!
I don't ever listen to ESPN these days. I watch the games because I have no choice but never listen to the pre or post game banter. I go to Netflix to get away from them.
Why is the game at 5 pm. on Christmas Eve? Because millions of people are at home, with nothing else to watch on TV.
The Hawaii tourism board wants homebound mainlanders to dream about going to sunny, warm Hawaii, so it sponsors a 3.5-hour commercial in the firm of a football game.
The same reason the Rose Bowl was at 5 p,m. EST on NY Day when I was growing up. Because people are at home and that makes for a huge TV audience.
It's always been about the money, just not at blatant as it is today.
The opposite of love in not hate, but indifference. It is becoming BORING. Ducks vs Ohio State? Yawn. Georgia vs Alabama. zzzzz. The only excitement now is rooting for underdogs. But who is going to spend 3 hours to watch UCLA vs Rutgers, or Stanford vs Wake Forest? Greed is an ugly thing, and I blame greed for ruining such a beautiful sport. I blame ESPN, Fox, conference commissioners, and Phil Knight. They all have blood on their hands. In the meantime, the best way to show your indifference is to turn the TV off
Spike your eggnog and you'll feel better in the morning.
I think he's way ahead of you:
https://youtu.be/DEKyx_eTxBQ
Couldn't agree more. I barely watch anymore regardless of the conference or team. I only want the final score to validate my betting claims. The drama and greed drive me away.
CFB reminds me of that classic Far Side cartoon where a couple of fishermen are looking from their boat out to the horizon where a big mushroom cloud is blooming into the sky. One looks at the other and says, "You know what this means Earl. No size restrictions and screw the limits".
Sure, there is a lot wrong with college athletics and universities in general. As a university professor (first at Oklahoma now at Gonzaga) and academic administrator, I can only chuckle as I remember the overwhelming pressure universities have had over the past 20+ years to run our institutions like businesses. Well, how is that working out? But, watching Dan Lanning talk to his team in the propaganda videos UO releases after wins, I recognise something. He is a teacher. What he is doing with those players is not too different to what I am doing with my students in my classes and what dedicated professors (not all of them, for sure) are doing in their teaching work. Teaching life skills through a specific subject, with a great deal of care and intentionality for helping young people grow. As long as college football coaches and staff continue to care about the players--whether they are in a program for a 1 year or for 5 years--all is not lost.
You get it
Great piece. Spot on. Love the term "campus pimps" to describe the presidents and ADs who are responsible for this mess. Sadly, the college football that we've known and loved for so many years has been corrupted almost beyond recognition. Now the main goal is to feed the beast.
I still watch the games, but I'm often holding my nose.
I still can't figure out how an athletic director has the power to take his or her university to a different conference. Blows my freaking mind.
Great article. My wife started reading me another ESPN piece about the great college football stories of the last 25 years. Then she wanted to know why I wasn't paying attention. I told her I just didn't care that much any more. What is the point of any sport where victory is a transactional purchase. That is professional athletics. I could care less how much Uncle Phil can pay to win (or LSU or THE Ohio State or any other program).
This is really well said Dan!
Great article. The conference implosions is what turned me off, as well as the constant need for more money.
Like your Kodak poster, I was similarly engaged growing up, not only following WSU but everyone in the conference. The Pac-10 was my league. I recall buying a Pac-10 t-shirt at the WSU bookstore, proud of all the school's symbols on the shirt. I thought we were all in this together. I guess not.
When academic schools Cal and Stanford yell from the mountain tops that they're the smartest, then send all their athletes out of the classroom to take east coast trips, that's just hypocrisy.
I'm barely hanging in as a fan. I'm not against the new Pac-12, I just don't like the constant money grab and arrogant college presidents, who keep demanding more alumni money, while at the same time jacking up student tuition.
Tim, I also had that shirt! Go Cougs!
We have a tendency in this country to monetize the soul out of everything. When will it be enough?
On Christmas Eve, a peaceful and reflective night, we will focus on being together. The best gift as a child was never the presents, it was listening to my dad and uncle play Christmas songs on their acoustic guitars after dinner.
Right on cue, dad has arrived for our small family gathering and he quickly picked up the guitar we have and tuned it. Maybe I’ll get him to play a song tonight.
Happy Christmas to you John and your family. I’m glad you are writing the quiet part out loud.
This is lovely, Mere. What a beautiful image of family and music for this holy season. Merriest of Christmases to you and yours.
I'm currently reviewing my alto part in the Alleluia Chorus to join the choir on stage in a bit.
This might sound strange - as a Penn State fan and writer, I have been living and covering this my entire life and I can tell you it didn't turn out good.
Growing up and in my youth, Penn State played Pitt on Thanksgiving and typically WVU sometime in October. Pepper in Boston College and Syracuse to go along with Maryland, Temple, and Rutgers you had a feel of a slate of games.
Penn State joined the Big Ten and things were different - branded "Unrivaled" - it has never fully been a clean entry and were 30+ year in.
Manufactured rivalries aren't there, I can tell you Minnesota (Governor's Victory Bell) and Michigan State (Land Grant) don't have it.
But what is really disheartening is seeing Pitt in the ACC and WVU in the Big XII - I am within 2.5 hours of each and I can be in three different power conferences, yet they don't meet.
When you win big, you enjoy the wins, but when you lose there is very little to cling to.
As you cover UO, it is high times for sure, but when things get tough it is when you will feel it.
Hay but as a PSU fan you get to see OOC games with Villanova, Akron, FIU, FAU and other cupcakes of the week from the MAC!
I don't think anyone is happy in that. I would say the cost going to an UO game is similar to what PSU fans pay for.
Think if you paying a premium for those opponents and really only play two or three names.
I am not suggesting PSU go back to their 1980's schedules where teams like Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, Nebraska visited State College.
I feel for what fans are stuck to pay for, teams should offer a better slate of games. There will always be those tune ups but it can't be that bad.
There's a larger more fundamental problem here. . Universities, and college sports, are merely collateral damage.
There used to be a degree of balance in our capitalistic society. There were guardrails. Integrity and community service were widely valued. That has all become laughable in the headlong pursuit of more and more wealth by the wealthiest among us. How ludicrous is it that Elon Musk demands a trillion dollar bonus and our Supreme Court just said that was perfectly OK, overturning the lower court.
So is it any wonder that sports for the masses is just one of the casualties? We can rage at the darkness, but billionaires, and their corporate toys, are in control now.
Boy, you nailed it! I'm just aghast at the greed being demonstrated by the ultrarich today with no regard for society whatsoever. I recommended in this space a week or so ago that people read Roxane Dunbar's "An Indigenous People's History of the U.S." to understand how greed became the central operating principle of our society. She isn't overstating it by much when she says "Before the white man came here, the land belonged to everybody; after that, it became PRIVATE PROPERTY". And how can there be enough sycophants out there to do all these things at their behest, like tearing down the WH and denigrating the Kennedy Center. As long as there's enough money in it,, people will apparently do anything. I think after all these years, Bernie's message about the oligarchs is finally coming onto the radar of the average person.
You and Berny, who never held a job until he became a politician after he was 50, wouldn’t recognize an oligarchy if it bit you in the behind. The only true oligarchy in the USA is politics where the Democrats and Republicans totally control the political process.
I have no sympathy for USC fans or anything related to USC. That's the school that lit the match to set the PAC-12 on fire. It's also a program that has broken the rules for decades and pretty much done whatever it could to give itself an advantage in football regardless of the consequences to its academic reputation or the welfare of any other members of its community. Those of us who aren't USC fans or alums can only take delight in the failure of USC to remain relevant and for its few remaining traditions to die. On the other hand, those fans and alums who have supported USC football over the years are complicit in everything that's gone awry in college sports. There is no greater villain in the world of intercollegiate sports than USC and anyone associated with USC should feel nothing but shame.
This is ridiculously off-base and overly simplistic. The individual SC fan is not culpable or complicit. They had as much control over this as I did when my Beavs were left behind. And no, the SC on my user name does not stand for Southern Cal.
I'm an SC grad and long-time fan who hated the destruction
of the Pac12 and subsequent events and there is no one I blame more than the USC president. In your eyes, however, I "should feel nothing but shame" and accept
complicity "in everything that's gone awry in college sports."
Very sorry to disappoint you, but I don't. Evidently you're not one for nuance.
Bill, I am an OSU alum and lived in Newport Beach for over 35 years. Many of my neighbors and good friends were USC alumni. My very long time business partner went to USC on a basketball scholarship. I attended a lot of USC games at the Coliseum and loved the USC/UCLA rivalry from the mid 80's to the 90's. My sense is that every serious USC fan would go back to the old PAC 12 structure in a hearbeat. In my mid this was completely a Mike Bohn dirven scenario. True USC fans appreciated the PAC 12 conference!!
When your school was destroying the PAC-12, what actions did you take? Did you complain to the administration, cancel your season ticket package or stop your contributions? If you did nothing, you’re complicit.
I guess this means you don't disapprove of the ending of the SC-Notre Dame rivalry.
I used to be the highest level of Booster at an SEC school that has won national championships in football, basketball, and baseball but I’m now out. I know longer get joy from the games. I’m cheering for a uniform because the players come and go. It’s a hopeless feeling. The worst part is that the NCAA could have headed this off when they lost the Obannon lawsuit. Instead, they stuck their collective heads in the sand and we are the ones paying the price.
You hit that nail on the head. Sadly, the game will never be what it once was. That being said, I’m still going to be watching.
Same
"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" That's the most negative column you have posted. You have to get outside and out of your bubble.
Merry Christmas to you and your family 🎁
I’m hopeful we can hold onto the things that made college football great. I still love it.
Don’t think it was truly negative message just the truth of college football as it is now.
Are you possibly referring to the famous Jim Healy radio show out take of years ago? I think it was Jerome Brown who posed the question and I believe he said "Japanese."
This calls for one last futile and sophomoric effort!
I'm not going to touch this one, but do a quick search on the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
It's from "Animal House".
Thanks and sorry...that was many years ago for me. I apologize Stephen Smith.
No worries. Merry Christmas 🎄
“Food Fight!!!”
Do a quick search on Belushi and Animal House
Senator Blutarski no less…
Germans?
lol, and Jerome Brown/The U paraphrased it with his Fiesta Bowl speech and walkout, haha.