When I grew up in the era of rabbit ears, New Year’s Day featured the most popular bowl game.
The Rose Bowl came on in the afternoon out East. The game would start when it was sunlight and ended when it was dark. It gave off a Super Bowl feel.
The Rose Bowl would feature the Big 10 champion against the Pac 10 champion.
That meant East Coasters would have a chance to see historic programs like USC and UCLA. Occasionally Washington would work its way into the game.
On the basketball court, UCLA was coming from its iconic run under John Wooden. Even here in the East, the Pac-10 had incredible credibility.
The Pac-10 was the “conference of champions”, just ask Bill Walton. He gladly to reaches back to yesteryear whenever he has a mic in front of him.
Fast forward to 2023 and the Pac-10 is now the Pac-12 and is on the edge of extension.
In the era of historic television contracts for college sports, the Pac-12 has found a way to fumble away financial security.
Every conference is on television day and night yet the Pac-12 created a network that couldn’t get on DirecTV leaving them outside of television sets.
The conference is still trying to come up with a media deal.
That’s not even the worst of it.
The conference has done the unthinkable and lost USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.
The Pac-12 couldn’t even keep Colorado. The Buffaloes are running back to the Big 12. My goodness… the Big 12.
If the Big 12 can poach three or four more teams, the Pac-12 could dissolve at worst and pick up a handful of teams from smaller conferences at best.
Long gone are the days when the Pac-10 was at the center of America’s most iconic bowl game.
The conference is closer to the edge of extinction.
