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First Quarter Last Waltz
Everything changes come 2024, but that’s no reason to wish away 2023. Settle in for our last chance to see a lot of things before they go away—some of them forever. Check out the Dash’s Last Waltz dance card:
The Pac-12 (1). The Conference of Champions isn’t officially dead yet, but it has absolutely been snuffed out as a power league and a base for West Coast schools. Four schools are fleeing to the Big Ten: USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. Four are bolting for the Big 12: Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah. Two more, Stanford and California, are persistently trying to work their way into the Atlantic Coast Conference (that quest could reach a resolution, one way or the other, this week).
That potentially leaves Oregon State and Washington State as the last two members of a league that was born in 1915. The Beavers were a charter member, and the Cougars joined two years later. Whatever their fate will be, it’s sure to be sad.
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11. It took incredibly bad leadership, both from the conference office and campus administrators, but they actually pulled it off: They destroyed a long-standing Power 5 conference. Shamelessly grabbing for cash, making a mockery of academic emphasis, subjecting athletes to ridiculous travel demands and insulting fans is inexcusable. But the cowards in charge did it anyway.
