One year from now they’ll go their separate ways. The Pac-12 Conference, once known as the “Conference of Champions,” will go the way of the original milk shake. Scooped, put in a mixer with milk, hit the switch and there you go a refreshing, tasty, chunky delight. Today’s milkshakes are pre-blended and come out of a machine. Quick, still refreshing, but just not the same. It’s too bad the conference is also facing an evolution. When not rooting for the Beavers or Ducks, I always rooted for the Pac-8, Pac-10 and Pac-12 teams in out-of-league contests. In football we were known for the passing West Coast Offense while the rest of the nation ran the ball down the throat of each other. The Rose Bowl pitted that concept against one another every New Year’s Day. It was great, West vs. East! You mean you didn’t root for USC’s John McKay (an Oregon assistant coach), or the Trojans’ John Robinson (another Duck assistant), or Washington’s Don James (once a Husky always a Husky), when they had the best teams in the nation and played in the “Granddaddy of them All?” Great football, made the West Coast gridiron fans proud. But it is going away. Never to be realized again. This is the last year of the Pac-12 as we know it. However, the teams are not going down quietly. The 2023 football season opened with a West Coast blitz. The Pac-12 went 12-0 against its opening day opponents this past weekend. It’s too bad the league’s chancellors, presidents, athletic directors and teams grew up on those fast milk shakes.
