Pac12 just doesn't have many good teams or even very good teams. This was probably the best hope for a playoff team and they just lost to a team with a lameduck coach and a 3rd string qb.
The Pac12 will never be relevant until USC returns to being USC.
The last time USC was USC Pete Carroll was the head coach and the program was riddled with scandal. USC has lost or is losing its mystique. The John McKay / John Robinson days are long gone.
USC has had a major academic scandal, while both USC and UCLA have had medical professionals providing services on their campuses accused of sexual assault. The area around USC is not a desirable place to live, or taking in events which provide entertainment. The population of American citizens in California is on the decline. Unless things change, I don't see a bright future for Southern California. There will always be the mega-rich who want to live in a house in Malibu, but the average Californian is getting the shaft from their state and local governments.
I think the Pac-12 needs to look to Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and possibly ASU and Utah in college football. ASU has assembled a staff which has been very successful in poaching kids from California, especially Long Beach Poly. Kids are liking that Herm Edwards runs his program with shades of an NFL organization.
The Pac-12 commissioner, with his offices in San Francisco, seems out of touch with the schools in states outside of California. ASU's athletic director has expressed displeasure regarding the amount of revenue the Pac-12 Network is generating. A lot of ADs outside the state of California want to know why the commissioner's office hasn't been moved to Salt Lake which is a more central location for all schools and much cheaper.
Utah at USC was the premier game in the conference this week, and it was televised on Fox Sports 1 on a Friday night, why? No one east of the Mountain Time Zone probably watched the game. That game should have been on today sometime between Noon and 4pm Pacific Time, and televised on Fox after the Michigan/Wisonsin game. I don't think the Pac-12 has a single game being televised nationwide today. Washington is on ABC against BYU, but I am pretty sure that is a regional broadcast. The Pac-12 should be owing the 8pm east coast time slot on Saturdays.
A lot of scuttlebutt in Arizona recently about ASU and Arizona leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big 12. Not sure it would be a good move, but just the fact it is being considered tells you how far the Pac-12 has fallen. In football ASU would be trading games against USC and UCLA annually for games against Oklahoma and Texas. A lot of people in Tempe don't see that as a bad trade. They think ASU could complete in the Big 12, and would get much more national exposure.
