Collapse of the PAC-12: Oregon State & Washington State left in the dust

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I can only remember 2 teams claiming a title in the same year. In 1966, it was Notre Dame (9-0-1, tied Michigan State 9-0-1 in their last game of the season). Neither one played in a bowl game. BTW, that is as far back as I can remember most sports.

TN and GA must have won during the 1920s and/or early 1930s.
1970 3 teams (Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska) finished undefeated and all claimed the National Championship. One in the 1920’s season 8 teams claimed one

TN claims 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967,
1998

There was once a great website that listed all the claimed NC’s in football but I can’t find it anywhere. Most claims by some schools are very flimsy or laughable (Tennessee’s 1967)
 
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You'd have a short list of power five schools that wouldn't get picked ahead of Northwestern if the Big Ten was a new idea.

I was opining if B1G in their current form and history—today 8/2/23—had to pick between adding either Northwestern or Rutgers as an expansion team. Knowing what we all know today about both schools media market shares in Chicago and the NJ/NYC area.

The B1G has Illinois in the Chicago market. The NJ/NYC market for Rutgers is more open for the B1G, even if it doesn’t pan out.
 
I can only remember 2 teams claiming a title in the same year. In 1966, it was Notre Dame (9-0-1, tied Michigan State 9-0-1 in their last game of the season). Neither one played in a bowl game. BTW, that is as far back as I can remember most sports.

TN and GA must have won during the 1920s and/or early 1930s.
From Wiki, For just coaches & AP polls:
The AP Poll and Coaches Poll have picked different final national poll leaders at the end of 11 different seasons since their first concurrent polls in 1950. This situation is referred to as a "split" national championship.


SeasonChampionRecordWire service poll
1954Ohio State10–0AP
UCLA9–0Coaches
1957Auburn10–0AP
Ohio State9–1Coaches
1965Alabama9–1–1AP
Michigan State10–1Coaches
1970Nebraska11–0–1AP
Texas10–1Coaches
1973Notre Dame11–0AP
Alabama11–1Coaches
1974Oklahoma11–0AP
USC10–1–1Coaches
1978Alabama11–1AP
USC12–1Coaches
1990Colorado11–1–1AP
Georgia Tech11–0–1Coaches
1991Miami (FL)12–0AP
Washington12–0Coaches
1997Michigan12–0AP
Nebraska13–0Coaches
2003USC12–1AP
LSU13–1Coaches

Then there's also a variety of other sources for selecting national champion where different teams get chosen as national champions.
 
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As a Penn State alum, We Are - safe in all this, but it still makes me sick to the stomach.

I can’t fathom how unwieldy a 24-team conference would be. There’d be years with basketball teams not playing each other - football would be a five year rotation, and a quagmire if multiple teams wound up undefeated…
24 or even 20 seem insane.

I'll say it again, if USC and UCLA can leave their history of the Pac12/Pac10 behind for money, I wouldn't be surprised down the line to see the OSU, Michigan, Penn State do the same. The top money drivers probably down the road decide to break away and setup their own brand new conference. Whether that is a 12 or 14 or 16 team conference it's up to them to decide how many they need to have the quality matchups, academic standards, and TV coverage/markets, etc.

20-24 schools is too many to ensure good matchups on a weekly basis. That's no different than being the what the Pac10 and Big10 were prior to the additions of Maryland, Nebraska, Rutgers, Utah and Buffalo respectively.

Paying more if Michigan plays PSU, OSU, UCLA, USC, ND, Oregon, Washington, etc. to get anywhere from 7-9 high quality matchups a year is worth big money vs. them playing lesser competition and only having 4 high quality matchups per year.
 
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24 or even 20 seem insane.

I'll say it again, if USC and UCLA can leave their history of the Pac12/Pac10 behind for money, I wouldn't be surprised down the line to see the OSU, Michigan, Penn State do the same. The top money drivers probably down the road decide to break away and setup their own brand new conference. Whether that is a 12 or 14 or 16 team conference it's up to them to decide how many they need to have the quality matchups, academic standards, and TV coverage/markets, etc.

20-24 schools is too many to ensure good matchups on a weekly basis. That's no different than being the what the Pac10 and Big10 were prior to the additions of Maryland, Nebraska, Rutgers, Utah and Buffalo respectively.

Paying more if Michigan plays PSU, OSU, UCLA, USC, ND, Oregon, Washington, etc. to get anywhere from 7-9 high quality matchups a year is worth big money vs. them playing lesser competition and only having 4 high quality matchups per year.

I meant safe from State’s conference slowly imploding like we are witnessing with the PAC-12.

We are getting closer and closer to inevitable. College Football takes the European Super League route, with one league of 30-40ish schools playing each other as the top flight, separate from the rest of whoever else is left in the current 1-A configuration.
 
The only way a Big Ten or an SEC team leaves their conference is if an even bigger superleague moneymaker gets created, and if anything even the biggest dogs in their respective conferences like their gardens.

There's a reason why the Big Ten and the SEC don't get talked about as poachable targets, because they've got the money. The other conferences are other matters.
 
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What could help UNLV in an aggressive push towards Pac-12 membership is a complete rebranding of the institution.

In an effort to distinguish them from the University of Nevada in Reno, the institution would adopt the new name of Nevada Tech University. The Rebels nickname would also be retired due to its unfortunate connotations. The new nickname could be Blackjacks.
Why would they drop the alas Vegas part of the name? That's where the branding is. No one confuses UNLV with Reno. As for dropping the confederate memorial name, that I can agree with.
 
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Why would they drop the alas Vegas part of the name? That's where the branding is. No one confuses UNLV with Reno. As for dropping the confederate memorial name, that I can agree with.
There are numerous states where the two largest athletic programs are at University of (state name)/(state name) University and (state name) State University/(state name) Tech. This would make Nevada one of them.

There's also the matter of those with the UNR camp derisively calling UNLV "Nevada Southern" which is their old name. The rebrand would be an attempt to end that.
 
There are numerous states where the two largest athletic programs are at University of (state name)/(state name) University and (state name) State University/(state name) Tech. This would make Nevada one of them.

There's also the matter of those with the UNR camp derisively calling UNLV "Nevada Southern" which is their old name. The rebrand would be an attempt to end that.
This is still never happening. You should focus on how the schools out west pick up the pieces.
 
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Thought that occurred to me is how long might the PAC hold together under the Apple TV deal?

Even if the remaining 9 PAC schools agree to give the Apple TV deal a try, I doubt the PAC can convince a majority of teams to go with a typical 8-10 year exit penalty on a new media deal.

If the schools can only agree on something like a 2-4 year exit covenant for Apple, there’s a heightened risk for the schools that they‘re left with less attractive dance partners in 2-4 years vs moving now if the media rights deal flops.
 

Or not.

Last ditch effort by PAC leaders to save the conference ends with no result this morning.



ORWA still determined to leave, could be trying to leverage a few more $ out of the B1G since they won’t be getting full shares.

AZ is out the door, the PAC may have survived just losing them and the Buffs but it is clear there is no unity left in that conference.

This is all just sad drama if you are a PAC or traditional conference fan. The horses are out of the stable. We may keep hearing of more twists and turns but the end result will be the same. The Huskies and Ducks are certainly not locking themselves into a diminished PAC GoR and AppleTV deal. That’s pretty clear.
 
I will never understand fans feeling some type of loyalty to a particular conference. It's honestly one of the most cringeworthy things I see grown men doing in the professional sports world. I am a UCLA (mom went there, watched them growing up) and Georgia (bandwagon adopted in high school because I wanted a top football program to cheer for along with UCLA in basketball) and I could give a f*** less where either played. I actually prefer the Big Ten and their matchups for UCLA
 
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Sounding like both schools will be introduced as Big Ten members by the end of the day today
 

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