I wanted it to work. Many of us did. Wanted the Pac-12 to survive. But the writing is in the stars, not the sand.
It’s time.
Time for Utah to bolt, to jump ship, and to make certain its football future. The Pac-12 was good for whom and for what it was. The Utes appreciated that, did that, conquered that.
Something better awaits. Something richer. Something more secure. Something with equal if not bigger opportunity. It might not be beachfront property, and it might not be the absolute best thing, just better than what’s in the rearview.
Go Utes. Go. Leave. Exit stage right.
Colorado didn’t stick around to hear the details of Commissioner George Kliavkoff’s new media deal. The Utes did and now they know the potential promise and pitfalls of an Apple TV future heavily tied to a subscription model that has plenty of experts skeptical.
The Arizona Board of Regents was scheduled to meet Thursday night to discuss in private the future of athletics at Arizona and Arizona State. Nobody wants to stand alone as the next domino in the Pac-12′s decline, though there are conflicting reports on whether Utah and the ‘Zona schools would remain a united front.
Meanwhile, other threats lurk. Any report that indicates the Big Ten is deeply interested in inviting Oregon and Washington into its league, that talks have quietly proceeded between the conference and the schools, but the Big Ten doesn’t want to be seen all out in the open as predatory in relation to the Pac-12 is laughable.
I don’t mean that it’s — hahaha — not accurate reporting, that it’s not what Big Ten officials are whispering. I mean that for well-placed, high-ranking sources in the Big Ten to be bashful now about destroying the Pac-12 by taking the Ducks and the Huskies is a joke. They already have messed over the Pac-12 by taking away USC and UCLA.
Some are saying the Big Ten is waiting for other Pac-12 schools to jump to other leagues first so it can then go ahead and innocently add what it wants to group with what it’s already taken. But that’s like one art thief stealing the Mona Lisa and then blaming another for wanting the frame.
It takes no brainiac to figure that if those two schools have intentions of going to the Big Ten that the remaining Pac schools must move right now. Weeks ago, I asked one league administrator at a Pac school if he could trust Washington and Oregon and his reply was, “Can they trust us?”
The answers are no and hell no.
But Utah’s not headed to the B1G. It would if it could. It can’t. It could compete there, were it invited. It’s not.
Trusting any school not already loaded into a comfortable — read: lucrative — spot in the Big Ten, the SEC or, a notch or two down, the Big 12 is what only a fool would do. Every school is out for itself and, at this point, why not?
The Big Ten and the SEC can have whatever schools they want, with the exception, for the time being, of Notre Dame. They have the money. They have the media rights deals. They have the exposure. They have the power.
Every other conference must feel like the beatdown, beleaguered boyfriend of a couple at a party on a billion-dollar yacht, a party filled with smart, handsome available multi-billionaires who also have billion-dollar yachts.
Self-assuredness and relational security is in short supply.
If the Big Ten wants Washington and Oregon, they’re gone, if not now, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the following day.
And if they’re gone, the Pac-12′s comparative damaged catamaran has a gaping hole in its hull, sinking fast, as the billionaires sail soullessly away. That’s the reality in modern college football.
And it’s the reality staring down Utah’s throat.
Kyle Whittingham himself said this week he believes super conferences are the inevitable future of college football. Does anyone believe the Pac-12 will be one of them? Even the prospect of an easier road to an automatic playoff bid in a revamped Pac surely isn’t enough to outweigh the risks of staying.
But the other option is a solid one.
If I’m school president Taylor Randall and athletic director Mark Harlan, I’m doing everything possible to tie up with Arizona and Arizona State and head for the Big 12. This is not the time to be anything close to arrogant or picky. The boat underfoot is listing. Get off it, get away from it. Yeah, BYU stands on the other deck, hootin’ and hollerin,’ but that’s no concern of yours, no, not anymore.
Live to sail in new waters toward new horizons, even if it’s aboard a freaking prairie schooner. Don’t look back. Take the annual $31.7 million, the extras that go with it, and qualify for the CFB playoff by thumping a league that rewards you with what you need to keep football momentum going — not conjecture about what streaming might bring, rather what cash in hand can bring. Let the future — and whatever technology that comes with it — take care of itself when the time comes.
If Utah joined the Big 12, it might require some adjusting to new environments. But the Utes already have mined a whole lot of talent out of the backwaters in that footprint, especially Texas. And with the football pattern they’ve formed, the success they’ve had, the talent there snugly fits what they do. And the recruits they traditionally pull out of California will continue to be available to them. Their name is big enough to sustain that.
It makes too much sense — Utes go to the Big 12 and thrive. So Stillwater and Lubbock aren’t the Bay Area and Seattle. NBD. Join hands with the Arizona schools and head south, head east, where the prospects of winning are bright, bright enough, and the stacks of cash are deep, deep enough.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
Follow @GordonMonson