The Decline of the Pac-12
There was a time when the Pac-12 Conference was the strongest in the NCAA. A time when the UCLA men’s basketball team cut down the nets 10 times in 12 years. A time when Arizona, Arizona State and USC baseball teams dominated the diamond in Omaha every year. A time when Stanford women’s tennis seemed unbeatable after winning 15 singles’ championships in 24 years.
The Pac-12 used to be unstoppable. But after last year’s performance, players, fans and coaches across the country were left unimpressed with the so-called “Conference of Champions.”
So what happened?
Founded in 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, the Pac-12 originally consisted of four schools — Cal, Washington, Oregon, and Oregon State. Over the next century, schools trickled in and out of the conference until 2010 when the addition of Colorado and Utah finalized the 12-team division. But as the conference expanded, the results weakened. What used to be the strongest of the Power 5 Conferences began to slip off the national radar as their teams struggled to continue their glory through the millennium. Last year’s poor finish highlighted the embarrassment of the conference as Pac-12 teams went 1–8 in bowl games and 0–3 in the NCAA Tournament.
One of the largest obstacles the Pac-12 faces is the time difference from the East. More and more viewers are expressing their disappointment with the quality of play in the Pac-12 and the extra hour of sleep often appears more rewarding than staying up to watch the conclusion of an Oregon State-Colorado football game. East Coast viewers have started to turn off the TV after 10 P.M. with the assumption that the Pac-12 games have little effect on the national rankings and usually end in lopsided blowouts.
But this assumption is not entirely accurate as Pac-12 football games are often much closer than SEC matchups. According to Sports Media Watch, almost two million more viewers were tuned in to Georgia’s 42–13 blowout of Kentucky on Nov. 18 than Washington’s 33–30 victory over Utah after scoring ten points in the last minute. Even after the games, reporters couldn’t stop talking about the strength of the Georgia backfield, completely ignoring the historic comeback that took place in Seattle that night. The problem isn’t the quality of games but simply the time at which the games start.
Last year’s losses in the bowl games and the NCAA Tournament proved Pac-12 doubters right as the conference’s teams struggled to contend with small-town opponents on a neutral setting. Arizona basketball’s Round of 64 loss to Buffalo in the 2018 NCAA Tournament was one example of the weakness of the conference. The Wildcats, led by 7-foot-1 center and future №1 overall pick DeAndre Ayton, stumbled, 89–68, against the 13th seeded Bulls.
UCLA, a Southern California powerhouse whose 11 NCAA Tournament Championships have become a relic from the past, lost in the First Four to St. Bonaventure, a small-ball team from Western New York who hadn’t won a tournament game since 1970.
But what if the 2017–18 season was a fluke for the Conference of Champions? Indiana Pacers forward and former UCLA star TJ Leaf said he thinks the Pac-12 is still a dominant conference and shouldn’t be defined by one rough season.
“I don’t think the [Pac-12] gets the respect it should around the country,” Leaf said. “Not only are we successful almost every year when we enter the tournament in every sport but we also send a extremely large amount of players to the pros in all sports.”
The Pac-12 has always been skilled at polishing their players in preparation for the pros. In the NFL, Pac-12 products Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Rob Gronkowski and Richard Sherman have all smoothly transitioned from the collegiate level to the league. The same can be said for basketball with Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan all posting successful careers in the NBA after their tenures in the Pac-12.
These superstars, however, were never apart of a championship teams in college, proving that the conference is more of a gateway to the pros than an opportunity to win. This could cause young recruits seeking a quick turnaround to the pros to join Pac-12 teams, lowering their competitiveness and decreasing the conference’s success. Despite the statistics, Class of 2020 5-star recruit Johnny Juzang said he believes all the panic is just a false alarm and that recruiting decisions are less about the recent sports struggles or achievements and more about the school itself.
“I don’t think the rough finish last year would generally affect a recruit’s decision because they’re primarily looking at a school itself,” Juzang said. “It also depends on what the recruits goals and priorities are and how highly recruited they are.”
In an age where the media spreads like a plague, the Pac-12’s recent hiccups may be blown out of proportion. After all, every conference has its bumps along the path to success, and the Pac-12 just happened to hit that bump during a time when the whole world was watching. The fate of the Pac-12 is now in the hands of their commissioners as they look to reconnect with their waning audience in the East. As the late UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
