BURBANK, Calif. — The Pac-12 turns 100 this year. Fitting because it seems to have been that long since the league won a championship in its most important sport.
Who was it — oh yes, Oregon! — playing for it all nine months ago? Or was it nine years? USC was picked to win the league in the preseason media poll. Maybe the effects of the probation are wearing off.
Maybe we’re overvaluing the Trojans again.
The Ducks are pinning their hopes on a graduate transfer quarterback (Vernon Adams) who might start but definitely isn’t on campus yet.
Arizona State has the best program money can buy — upwards of $300 million counting the latest facility upgrades. But it boggles the mind how various Sun Devils coaches haven’t been able to find the right 85 scholarship guys to live out their college years in Tempe.
Hey, this is a league that can boast Barry Sanders. That would be Stanford‘s Barry Sanders Jr.
Too harsh? Not really. It’s been a decade since the Pac-12 (then Pac-10) won a national championship in 2004. In that time, the USC dynasty ended with the help of an NCAA TKO. Oregon rose to national prominence. So did Stanford.
The conference changed commissioners and philosophies while adding members and money. And here we are again. The Pac-12 remains full of promise but also the best name left on the board.
“I’m one of those guys that believes, yes, we should have to prove ourselves every year,” Stanford coach David Shaw said Thursday at the Pac-12 media days. “Even if guys are coming back and we have everybody coming back, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s all about what you do here going out now.”
God bless, David Shaw. He has a way of distilling the truth. Shaw was actually talking about his team, but he’s as real as they come. The Cardinal were 5-5 in November then won their last three to finish 8-5. The late season rally was sparked by Joe Flacco’s brother.
For Stanford, that was as important as Marcus Mariota winning the Heisman Trophy at Oregon. Point is, it’s always a year-to-year proposition.
Under commissioner Larry Scott, the league had largely been more flash than accomplishment. That began to change last year when Mariota won his Heisman and Oregon reached the national championship game for the second time.
Five of the six teams in the Pac-12 South won at least nine games in 2014. There were a record six bowl wins and 15 AP All-Americans.
How can the league sustain that momentum?
“I think we’re getting there,” Scott said. “So all those objective measures that those of us out West have worried about and complained about, you’re starting to see a shift.”
Six Pac-12 teams were ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll. But none of it is worth Todd Graham’s boots until the league cashes in on that promise.
The Pac-12 may be celebrating ‘100 years of champions,’ but it hasn’t won a title in 10 years. (USATSI)Arizona State is doing more than really anyone (financially) to prove it belongs. Sun Devil Stadium is being reconfigured. A new football facility is being added.
Recruits don’t ask Graham — a habitual job-hopper — how long he’s going to be around. The ASU coach is beginning his fourth year in the desert. That’s as long as he has stayed anywhere as a head coach.
“You bring in a recruit in it’s like, ‘Dude, look at this place. There’s no better place in this country,’” Arizona State quarterback Mike Bercovici said.
Scott said expansion is out of the question for now, but realignment buzz is out there again. And this is the man who went all in on half the Big 12 less than four years ago.
“We put together a concept [that included] Texas and Oklahoma at the time,” Scott told CBSSports.com, “but we haven’t come across any other configuration that would make sense for us.
“You never say never. I’m always careful to say [no to expansion in the] ‘foreseeable’ future.”
Scott still has to fantasize about the Central Time Zone. He begins his Pacific Rim initiative with a Washington-Texas basketball game later this year in China. The man can get basketball games in Asia but is still asking East Coast viewers to stay up way past midnight to watch its football.
USC was somewhat of a surprise pick to win the league. The Trojans lost to Boston College last season. They blew a sure win when Arizona State converted a Hail Mary. The were also the conference’s last national champion. Since USC last won the conference in 2008, either Oregon or Stanford have won the Pac-12 title.
Despite the soaring heights of the last few years, the league misses the Trojans at the top.
“I think guys now want to go back to USC,” former Heisman-winning quarterback Matt Leinart said. “I think guys are kind of gravitating back there. It’s a draw, man. USC is a brand. The brand has never been gone. It’s just been hiding a little bit.”
Part of it is the big-name promise of Cody Kessler, S’ua Cravens and Adoree’ Jackson. Part of it was not buying into an Oregon that could go from Mariota to Jeff Lockie.
By the way, what kind of message is Adams sending? The quarterback you want to be your leader (and starter) can’t get his own academic house in order. The Eastern Washington grad transfer may not be in Oregon’s camp until after it starts.
That’s another reason why — at first glance — there won’t be a Pac-12 repeat of 2014. No Heisman. Perhaps no playoff berth. Plenty of parity.
“I won’t be shocked if this is the year we have a conference championship with a team in there that has two losses,” Shaw said.
Oh no, not that. The Pac-12 officially turns 100 on Dec. 2. That’s four days before the College Football Playoff is seeded.
Will the birthday be spoiled?
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