Is This The End?

Image courtesy of Oregon State Athletics

The Pac-12….er….Pac-10…..er….Pac-9 has been through tough times before. Founded in 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, it actually died for a few years in the late 1950s after the University of Washington was found to be illegally paying players in 1956, then everyone turned on everyone else and ratted each other out for doing the same thing…..a great read on the history of the conference can be found here in a piece titled ‘Modern NCAA Conference Commissioner was Forged in Fiery Destruction of the Pacific Coast Conference.’

It’s hard to remember now, but when Larry Scott first was hired, he came very close to convincing Texas and Oklahoma to come to the Pac-12. The holdup was the Longhorn Network. Texas was unwilling to share revenue from their own network, or modify the network to include the other schools in the region that were reportedly coming (OU, Oklahoma St. and Texas Tech). The conference, right or wrong, decided not to give the new kid “most favored” status, which I understand.

If Larry Scott was your dad (creepy, I know, but stay with me) and he comes home one day and sits you and your siblings down and says “I want you to know that I’m adopting a couple new kids. One of these kids has an Xbox. I know I told you guys that you all have to share your current Xbox, but this kid is gonna get to keep his own Xbox, and he doesn’t want you guys to touch it. We’re gonna respect his wishes, because we REALLY want him as a part of our family.” Papa Scott is gonna have a real tough time keeping the kids in line with that move. 

So then Dad decides that he’s not going to bring in new kids with the cool Xbox, but he will bring in these two other kids who are sort of neglected and need a better home. The “everyone gets an Xbox” idea seems good, and he creates the Pac-12 network with SEVEN channels - one for everyone, but also each set of two kids gets one for themselves. My analogy is going to fall apart here, but basically there weren’t enough games for all the consoles, not enough TVs to play them on, and potentially not enough controllers to allow your friends (the fans) to enjoy all these fuckin’ Xboxes.

Also, let’s not forget that the media deal that Larry Scott first negotiated after Utah and Colorado joined was the largest in college sports history. He didn’t so much fail as in not succeed as much as he possibly could have. Had the decision not been made to hoard the worst football games the conference had to offer and all the sports that not many people watch anyways for ourselves, we could’ve made MORE money while also spending less on distribution and production costs. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Which brings us up to speed. USC felt like the kid who does everything right - gets straight A’s, has a job to help pay the bills for the other 11 kids who are unable to make money on their own, etc. They resented the fact that they were treated like everyone else, because they weren’t like everyone else. UCLA was so far in credit card debt, that when USC found a way to get paid what they felt they were worth, got a bailout simply by being located near USC.

But Colorado…..man……

Colorado left the Big XII already. They didn’t like it there. So they came here. I think they probably liked it here, but also found out maybe they weren’t as cool as they thought they were. So now they’re like the kid who was captain of the football team in high school, got the scholarship to the fancy university, couldn’t quite live up to expectations, and is now moving back home to Smallville, where they’re hoping that slipping on the ol’ letterman jacket and talking about the 1991 Orange Bowl is gonna make them cool again. It won’t. They’ll be Trip McNeely in “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

I remember the stress of last summer when USC and UCLA said they were leaving. It didn’t seem like a positive development for Oregon State. But hey, maybe this George Kliavkoff guy would fix things. Maybe we’d add San Diego State and someone else, recapture that Southern California market, cut a new media deal, and keep right on sailing. Heck, it’d even be easier to win the conference without the Trojans around, right?

A year later, we’re still sitting around like the kid on the curb whose dad told him he’d come by to pick him up and take him to the big game, only it’s five minutes until kickoff and mom’s making excuses for dad and trying to coax you back inside with fresh baked cookies and a game of Monopoly. “Just give him a couple more minutes mom, he’s not going to let me down this time!”

It just sucks. Realistically, OSU (and Wazzu) don’t really have much to offer. We aren’t national brands. We’ve all been at the airport with an Oregon State shirt on and had someone say “Oregon State! Go Ducks!” We don’t have a massive fan base, passionate though we may be. Our success in gymnastics and baseball hardly registers with TV audiences. While we all tuned into the home run derby a few weeks ago beaming with pride that Adley Rutschman was finally getting the attention he deserves, most of the country was probably seeing him swing a bat for the first time. 

I don’t want the Pac-12 to die, but more so I don’t want Oregon State Athletics to die. I’m terrified that when the music stops we’ll be the school that doesn’t have a chair. Last week it was reported that season ticket sales for football were up 20%. If we get 10 wins again this year and win a bowl game, but it’s announced the conference dissolves and instead of playing UW and Oregon and Utah in 2025 we’re going to be playing Wyoming and Nevada and UTEP…..are those fans renewing their seats? Will sports like golf, crew, soccer, still be able to operate if the TV rights deal dries up? Sure, football and men’s basketball have provided a lot of memorable experiences in my life, but so have the other sports.

I was there when OSU clinched their first Pac-12 title in men’s soccer a few years ago. That crowd was incredible. I got to see Katie Ledecky swim at Osborne Aquatic Center when Stanford came for a swim meet. I saw Jennie Fitch pitch in softball. I saw a kid from Salem, Stephen Copeland, outduel Mark Prior in a baseball game. 

Part of what makes being a Beaver fan so special for us is the identity we have as the little guy. We all bristle at the “Little Brother” comments from Duck fans, but deep down, we fucking LOVE that. Keep discrediting us. Keep thinking we can’t. We love it when we get to take down No. 1 USC on a Thursday night. I remember the elation in Gill when Dino Tanner hit a corner three to take down an Arizona team that featured five future NBA Draft picks. I was watching on TV when Lauren Sinacola’s women’s soccer squad went down to Stanford and won for the first time in program history, beating a team that featured current USWNT starter Naomi Girma. 

Moments like those don’t happen without the Pac-12 Conference, or certainly happen less often. It’s especially painful to think about the momentum the football team has right now getting snuffed out if recruits are leery about the future of the conference or OSU’s status in a major conference. 

Then again, maybe I’m overreacting. Jon Wilner quoted a source as saying the conference “should beat the Big XII’s number” even with Colorado leaving. Maybe SDSU, SMU, and Colorado State join? Who knows.

As Beavers, we’ve always prided ourselves on being the underdog that nobody respects. That won’t change if the Pac-12 implodes. If anything, it’s right up our alley. Stack the deck against us even more, world….we’re still coming for you.