Canzano: Monday Mailbag deals with Pac-12 nostalgia, Phil Knight, NCAA Tournament, and CFP
Your questions. My answers.
I spoke with Phil and Penny Knight on Saturday in Las Vegas. They were at T-Mobile Arena with one of their grandsons. The trio sat behind the University of Oregon bench during the men’s Pac-12 Conference Tournament title game and rooted for the Ducks.
Phil, 86, told me before the tip: “The breakup of the conference is sad.”
The Knights watched the Ducks beat Colorado, completing a remarkable run and clinching an NCAA Tournament bid. Penny clutched a Pac-12 tournament program and flip card in her hands as they got up to head out.
The couple could have made a hard left, down the tunnel to leave the arena, and gone back to their hotel. But as they got up Penny turned to Phil and asked: “What do you want to do?”
“Shoe Dog” pointed toward the court.
The Knights stepped down from the stands and were guided onto the hardwood where they soaked up the UO celebration. Phil and Penny watched UO’s team cut down the nets while they shook hands and slapped backs with others. As I flew back from Las Vegas on Sunday morning, I thought about all the Pac-12 nostalgia.
Phil is sentimental.
Penny has been there all along, too.
So have so many Pac-12 staffers, many of whom spent their final shift on the job as the lights were being turned out in Las Vegas. Before the game, I asked Phil Knight where he thought all this college conference realignment business was headed.
“You know more than I do,” he told me.
The 108-year-old conference will be left with only two members after July 1. The Pac-12 Network has more than 100 events left on its calendar. The conference baseball tournament in Arizona in May will be the network’s final broadcast. But the Pac-12 Network is officially done with football and basketball.
Pac-12 Network anchor Ashley Adamson signed off on the final basketball broadcast late on Saturday night. Amid heavy gravity and high stakes, Adamson somehow managed to float above the moment.
She mustered a perfect close.
“There is a ton of uncertainty. We work in an age in college athletics when the only that’s guaranteed is more change,” Adamson said into the camera. “So, as we sign off tonight, I’m going to leave you with some words from my favorite artist, Bruce Springsteen: ‘Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact. But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.’”
The network broadcast then rolled a wrap-up video. Dozens of Pac-12 Network staff members stood alongside Adamson inside T-Mobile Arena watching on a monitor. When it was done the staff posed for a group photo.
As one person present said: “It was pretty emotional.”
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Onto the Monday Mailbag…