Pac-12 again shows how unprepared they are for big time football
Playing the game behind the game, badly
Let’s rewind the clock a little bit. When the Big Ten announced they were calling off football, the Pac-12 was right behind them. Then when the Big Ten reversed that decision under pressure, it put the Pac-12 under the microscope. As a matter of fact, the Big Ten and Commissioner Kevin Warren came off looking good with a nine-game schedule beginning October 24. The Pac-12, however, looked like idiots.
Warren got a call from the President about playing this season. The Pac-12 was called out at a campaign rally, and Larry Scott wasn’t mentioned by name. Ouch. Then Scott tried to blame state politicians for the conference not returning to play. Bad idea.
The politicians showed Scott how politics really worked. Within a day, Oregon Governor Kate Brown threw Scott under the bus, and then California Governor Gavin Newsome backed it up over him again for good measure. Both governors basically said, very publicly, there was nothing at the state level preventing the Pac-12 from putting on games.
Reluctantly, the conference finally agreed to a seven-game schedule, beginning November 7. They could have started the same week as the Big Ten or even the week after. But nope, they decided to squeeze a seven-game schedule into seven weeks, with as little thought as possible as to how it would work out.
At this point, we know how it worked out. Cancellations marred the season, and the Pac-12 gave themselves absolutely no wiggle room to make corrections in a dynamically changing environment. Now all that’s left is an illegitimate championship game.
Seize every opportunity. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/VUyNoyTYcA
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) December 14, 2020
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