2008 National Champ

agree. USC is the shiny bauble of the Pac-12 but all of their problems are self-inflicted. Reggie Bush, the admin/scholarship debacle, and the sex abuse scandal have nothing to do with the conference they are in.

Still, it won’t keep them from making excuses to separate from the conference.

I highly doubt that Utah / WSU is considered best overall matchup, even if there aren’t any standout games. If you just used the projected win totals from the Vegas Insider:

1. ASU (10) v Colorado (5)
2. UW (8) v Cal (6)
3. USC (9) v Oregon State (4)
4. Utah (8) v WSU (5)
5. Oregon (10) v Arizona (2)
6. UCLA (6) v Stanford (5)

It all depends on the number and who is driving the bus. If it’s the 64 that people are throwing out (4 @ 16 team conferences) Utah probably makes the cut. If it’s the 24 to 32 team SEC driven super league, there’s a very good chance Utah gets left out.

A true national super league is actually an interesting thought exercise because it depends…[Read more]

From the Pac-12.com Website

While television selections for the first few weeks of the 2021 season have been made, as well as all Thursday and Friday games throughout the season, all remaining television game selections and start times, starting with week four (Sat., Sept. 25) and running through the final week of the regular season (Fri., Nov.…

[Read more]

The “possible” games times are anytime throughout the day and probably won’t be known until 6 days before the game. Thank Larry Scott for the great deal he made with ESPN to hold 12 schools hostage until they decided which game they would like to showcase that week. Depending on how the game is prioritized with the rest of the league it could…[Read more]

The best thing Pete Rozelle and the NFL ever did was to set up their broadcasting packages so that one network could not control the content, and thus, the autonomy of the league. They’ve continued that plan and now have multiple networks who have to compete for the right to show the their content while the NFL determines what is best for their…[Read more]

to be fair, some of the best decisions in life are the ones you don’t make. I’ve heard every school west of the Mississippi named over the last two days and none of them move the needle. Going to 16 teams just for the sake of having 16 may not be the right move.

Joining up with former Big12 schools, or trying to get a couple of B1G schools that…[Read more]

status for an incumbent is always different than someone looking to join the club. Penn State and Michigan State might be considered more controversial if they were trying to change conferences.

For Baylor to be in consideration to join the Pac it would definitely be an additional hurdle. Also, the Baylor sex abuse that led to firing Art Briles…[Read more]

TCU instead of Baylor would give you Dallas and Houston markets and avoid recent scandals. Nebraska doesn’t bring much to the table right now except nostalgia for the Tom Osborne days. UNLV is more about the potential of the city instead of the school but if that’s what it takes to get the league offices out of San Francisco, sign me up.

The…[Read more]

deep but inexperienced. An injury to Lloyd would potentially be devastating and not just because Utah would be losing an All-American. None of the Calverts, Tufaga, Ellis or Reynolds has played a down of college football and Mata’afa/Mercier have not looked ready for starting roles prior to this season.

The Utah D is so dependent on excellent…[Read more]

Oklahoma isn’t going anywhere without Oklahoma State and Texas Tech is probably going to be attached to Texas. All of those are state schools and the legislatures would get involved, especially the alumni from the schools that would be left out.

All of the changes in the last round of relocation involved schools that did not have a partner like…[Read more]

You made a great bet. Using the numbers above, ASU would be the best choice of the teams who should be in the running. 4/1 for Utah is a suckers bet at this point but it does reflect all of the positive coverage Utah is getting.

I actually think Washington will win the Pac this year so 5/1 isn’t a bad choice either.

disagreeing with someone’s assessment isn’t offensive, at least not in my opinion.

by all means, proclaim the team as champion caliber. if we actually knew each other, i’d ask you to bet enough to make you nervous and take under 11 every time. I win either way which is why my original comment was about setting unrealistic expectations.

how do you know that “this team is that good”? I’m struggling to find the empirical evidence that would lead one to the conclusion that the same team which went 3-2 in 2020 is suddenly 11-1 or bust. I’m all for wanting the team you root for to be as good as possible but at some point, reality has to creep in.

What are you seeing that I’m not?…[Read more]

why set yourself up for that? 10-2 would be a fantastic result given the legitimate questions about this team and you are saying it would be disappointing.

It is those kinds of comments that fuel the “fire Whitt” crowd who feel anything short of a national championship is a failure.

How soon they forgot me

pretty easy to get overlooked as a prospect in the 80’s and 90’s. UNM also produced Brian Urlacher.

I believe he is referring to getting beat by Stoney Case when ranked #9.