College Football

An ode to the Pac-12: Often great, always fun, forever influential

Updated Dec. 2, 2023 12:07 a.m. ET

Dearly beloved — friends, family, alumni, administrators, coaches and players — we are gathered here in Sin City to celebrate the life of the Pac-12 Conference, a league that always strived to be a part of the light even if it rarely sat atop it in the great sport of college football.

Like many who have come to be in or around one of these 12 programs — be it through rooting interest, general pigskin masochism or university degree — it is with remarkable sadness that we close this chapter on something that has given us pretty much everything imaginable over its 108 years on Earth. It is fitting that the final breath this conference will take in 2023 will come at Allegiant Stadium, an opulent building of largess that cost others money, while featuring two teams that were loyal and unwavering to the conference — right up until the point where they were not in late August. The fact that the football being played on Friday night was at a high level was appropriate, too.

It was even more apt that a final championship game was staged involving the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies, the only two to ever carry the Pac-12 banner into the College Football Playoff during its current iteration.

Following the final whistle of a 34-31 Washington victory, it will be up to those in purple to keep the flame alight for a few more weeks before the jersey patches, field logos and unique inscriptions of conference pride dotting every campus are relegated to the dust bin of history.

Thankfully, we will always have the memories of the Pac-12 to cherish and recount, holding them dear no matter if we’re stuck in the throes of a midwestern winter or trying to get comfortable on a cross-country red-eye. Those recollections will forever be the source of nostalgia that will run deep among the surviving 12 schools, certain to be rehashed whenever two of them get together again for what will be as deeply awkward as it will be the new normal.

And what memories they were.

Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind are some of the triumphs. The 1954 UCLA Bruins gave new meaning to powder blue as they ran the single-wing to perfection on the way to a national title. Across town, John McKay built a USC dynasty in the 60s and 70s that was as notable for its hardware collection as it was for integrating the sport in other parts of the country behind Sam ‘Bam’ Cunningham & Co.

Later, it was Pete Carroll who resuscitated a fallen Troy with an energy not at all befitting someone his age. He would give rise to another dynasty — the last time a Pac-12 school would lord over the sport. Given everything that would come later, that dynasty was notably ended in the greatest game of the modern era by Texas, a school that torpedoed the grand vision of a Pac-16 and was the fuse that reignited the realignment that led to the league’s ultimate demise.

At least we can think back to happier times, like Don James giving rise to a behemoth on Montlake — one which felt like it would go on forever at Washington right up until Oregon's Kenny Wheaton returned ‘The Pick’ and altered the balance of power in that area of the country for years to come.

Perhaps the most famous finish in college football history happened in this league, with Cal announcer Joe Starkey’s scream that "the band is out on the field!" becoming so ingrained in the fabric of the sport that it’s labeled simply as, "The Play." You all know it so well that Starkey’s voice is jumping up three octaves in your head as you read this right now, thinking back on the most infamous trombone section ever.

Heck, the only reason why pushing the quarterback in short yardage is in vogue right now is because the Pac-12 popularized the play to win the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football.

Or how about that game that so perfectly encapsulated the chaos contained within every Pac-12 "After Dark" game, where one team put up 63 points on the scoreboard and had a quarterback throw for nine touchdowns — yet lost because of a 32-point blown lead in the second half?

It speaks to the Pac-12’s ethos that everyone connected to the conference can cite half a dozen "what the hell just happened" type of games like that, with no week nor season spared from the wackiness that often transpires up and down the West Coast.

The rivalries were equally notable for bringing folks together as they were for repelling them from each other.

The Big Game meant something to those in the Bay Area, just as much as winning the Victory Bell meant to those in Southern California. The previously named "Civil War" split allegiances in Oregon and had a similar dynamic to that of the beloved Apple Cup in Washington. The Territorial Cup is so named because it pre-dates statehood and is the oldest rivalry trophy in college football (it’s also among the most bitter to contest).

Thankfully, most of the rivalries will continue in the future despite this divorce, but, truthfully, they just won’t be the same under the auspicious of another conference (or conferences). We’ll all get used to them, awkwardly, but know where their real passion came from.

It was also nice that the newest newcomers in Colorado and Utah tried to make their annual season-ender a thing again. Though nobody ever really bought into the Rumble in the Rockies being on the level of others as a Pac-12 tradition — nor was it ever heated — they did their best to fit in.

But who could forget the quarterbacks, eh? They came through the Pac-12 in bunches, striking fear into opposing defensive coordinators.

Jim Plunkett, John Elway and Andrew Luck made every trip to The Farm worth it. Across the Bay, the likes of Jared Goff and Steve Barkowski went atop the draft, while a certain Aaron Rodgers began his rise in Strawberry Canyon.

In the Pacific Northwest, Terry Baker and Marcus Mariota were outstanding enough to tote back hardware and cement both sides of I-5 on the map to a larger audience. Not to be outdone, there were the likes of Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf, Warren Moon and Marques Tuiasosopo piling up eye-watering stats and sometimes even finding their way to the rosiest spot to ring in the New Year.

Matt Leinart recounts greatest memories of the Pac-12

That’s also to say nothing of the boys in cardinal and gold, the likes of Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and even recent addition Caleb Williams often leaving our jaws on the floor with the plays they could pull. off.

Those the signal-callers played with — and against — were just as unforgettable.

Some of the best offensive linemen ever hailed from out West, be it Jonathan Ogden blocking out the sun in Pasadena or Anthony Munoz putting the finishing touches on another student body right. You almost had to be good up front in the Pac-12 to win anything of note — just ask recent back-to-back champions Utah — but especially so given that you had to find a way to block the likes of Tedy Bruschi, Terrell Suggs and Willie McGinest coming off the edge.

It's almost too hard to limit oneself when diving into the skill position players, either. The same fertile recruiting grounds that gave rise to the moniker Conference of Champions also was the place to find a tight end like Tony Gonzalez or receivers like Keyshawn Johnson or Marquise Lee. All had to be at the top of their game when going out for a pass, especially given the likes of Ronnie Lott, Kenny Easley and Troy Polamalu roaming the secondary ready to knock them out across the middle.

If they didn’t, a Junior Seau or Ricky Hunley probably got to them first.

The coaches calling plays for all of them weren’t too shabby either.

James had a great southern foil from the mid-70s through the 90s in UCLA's Terry Donahue, both of whom sit atop the Pac-12’s all-time wins list depending on how you treat vacated wins. Mike Bellotti and Mike Riley proved you could win along the I-5 corridor, while Utah’s Kyle Whittingham remains one of the most underrated of all time in helping the Utes go from BCS Busters to Power 5 champions.

'This team is tough as nails' — Kyle Whittingham

Dick Tomey gave rise to Desert Swarm at Arizona, just as David Shaw trademarked the term "intellectual brutality" at Stanford, both winning big at places where consistent success is inherently difficult. Dennis Erickson won at outposts all over the Pac-12, accomplishing the unthinkable at places like Oregon State and Wazzu, while Jeff Tedford led Cal to a moment in the sun as a consistent power.

Though they revolutionized offenses elsewhere, Mike Leach and Chris Petersen solidified their coaching status as all-timers during stints in the Pac-12.

We’ll see just how Deion Sanders’ career transpires over the coming years, but we are all forever thankful for a six-week period this year when the Pac-12 was on the map in ways it never had been before. Everybody in the country was casually talking about Louis Vuitton in the same breath as Rolex-wearing players. The Buffs were comin’ until they weren’t, but we’ll never have anything like the supernova that Prime Time was ever again.

Even if some didn’t come close to accomplishing what those aforementioned names did at a similar level, it’s still pretty notable to be in a cohort of Pac-12 coaches that also counts Pop Warner among the ranks.

Was Deion Sanders' first season at Colorado a success?

Yet this was not a league without warts. NCAA scandals touched many parts of the conference during its lifetime, many of them quaint in this day and age of name/image/likeness, but nevertheless impactful at the time.

Perhaps the bane of everyone’s existence were the officials who wore a Pac-12 patch, always capable of surprising by announcing the wrong penalty or simply not seeing a blatant one. It got so bad one time that even the conference office stepped in, but that’s a story for another day. Luckily, they’ll forever be immortalized by that lasting, indelible image of one signaling for a first down at the same time another right behind him said it was a change of possession on fourth down.

May we cherish all those stripes as they disperse into the wind.

This is not the time to dive into other issues, from the failed business model of the conference's TV network to the inopportune timing of media rights negotiations that crippled the league with regularity. Commissioners asleep at the wheel or out of touch with modern realities only exacerbated things, with school presidents taking an eye off the ball when it came to the very investments that could have saved everything.

The list of root causes for this demise is lengthy. How could it not be, given that it toppled a conference that has been around in some form or fashion since 1915?

Though some may claim the league will go on, that may only be true in the eyes of the NCAA’s byzantine rule book. We all know, that for all intents and purposes, the final Pac-12 game between Pac-12 teams transpired on Friday night.

As the clock ticked down to zero and confetti rained from the rooftop, it’s hard not to get caught up in the emotion of it all. Sure, the Huskies are thrilled at the victory and the fact that they will forever be the answer to a trivia question, carrying ultimate bragging rights as the last to ever win the league.

But there’s no getting around that it’s the end of an era — the Pac-12 as we know it is gone from the gridiron.

It is survived by four schools off to greener pastures in the Big Ten, four others seeking stability from an aggressive Big 12, two trading the left coast for the right, and two others who will try to keep the lights on for as long as they can.

Thankfully, we’ll always have the memories. It’s just too damn bad that Washington's 34-31 win over Oregon had to close the book on it all.

So pour one out for the Pac-12, which is truly and forever now in the dark.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

[Do you want more great stories delivered right to you? Here's how you can create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow your favorite leagues, teams and players and receive a personalized newsletter in your inbox daily.]