Can the Pac 12 compete in today's college football?

[Sean Miller Fan]

I don't know, I cant say I follow it all that closely but it seems as if California HS football isn't what it used to be. And the neighboring states were never good enough to sustain enough talent.

Oregon had their run. USC had theirs. Can the Pac 12 get enough good players to be relevant again? Really, its like the Power 4. The Pac 12 seems closer to the American than the Big 10.

 

[steel_curtain]

I don't know, I cant say I follow it all that closely but it seems as if California HS football isn't what it used to be. And the neighboring states were never good enough to sustain enough talent.

Oregon had their run. USC had theirs. Can the Pac 12 get enough good players to be relevant again? Really, its like the Power 4. The Pac 12 seems closer to the American than the Big 10.

-Chip Kelly at UCLA, going to be real good real soon.

 

[jtownknowitall]

The PAC 10 sucks, the Big Ten Sucks, the SEC East sucks, the ACC Coastal sucks. Everyone sucks. Except Oklahoma State and Clemson (when they’re not playing Syracuse).

 

[cashisking884]

The Cali teams can when they having good coaches.
But the PAC 12 just doesn't have a lot of bell cows in it. Everybody is living off of California, and there are only so many 4* players to go around.

 

[Jsr862]

I'm more concerned if the Sun Belt can compete. Sun Belt is the power and staple of major college football. Them not being in the CFB play offs is bad for the game. Everything that is college football flows through the Sun Belt conference and thier Power 1 conference. Something needs to be done.

 

[ThePanthers]

It's a cyclical.

 

[pbrad]

USC has been a powerhouse and will be again. They have put more head coaches in the pros than any other program.

 

[USN_Panther]

USC has been a powerhouse and will be again. They have put more head coaches in the pros than any other program.

I'm not sure Helton is the answer there. Recall that USC also hired Paul Hackett!

I watched some of that game against OSU and the USC O-line was just manhandled. Darnold had no prayer in the pocket. I wasn't that impressed with Darnold even under those conditions. He doesn't seem to be very athletic or mobile.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

It's a cyclical.

Normally, I'd agree. However, the HS football culture in CA has never been as strong as TX, FL, and most other places. Californians are culturally different than most others and I wonder if there participation rates are dropping more than other places.

I wonder if Pac 12 football might become like Big Ten baseball.....just not able to compete due to geography

 

[upj87]

I don't know, I cant say I follow it all that closely but it seems as if California HS football isn't what it used to be. And the neighboring states were never good enough to sustain enough talent.

Oregon had their run. USC had theirs. Can the Pac 12 get enough good players to be relevant again? Really, its like the Power 4. The Pac 12 seems closer to the American than the Big 10.

the more interesting question is...
Can you ever come up with a question that comes within 400 yards of making a salient point? No, a state like California with 40 million people that loads up the 5 star lists you guys perpetually whack off to cannot funnel enough talent into the pac12 such that they can compete , got it....probably your best tinfoil hat analogy since "will the acc kick pitt out of the conference" two days before they beat the #2 team in the country in conference.

 

[Swervin27]

Sports on the west coast, on any level, is irrelevant. Life and culture on the west coast is irrelevant as well. No one cares.

 

[KennyTheKangaroo]

This is like saying there isn’t enough talent in Texas becuase TCU, Texas, aTm, and Baylor aren’t always simultaneously good. Even in the most talent rich states, there is only a finite number of athletes to spread out amongst the teams.

That being said, SMF made me think: Is the PAC 12 a victim of conference expansion? Utah is a good program and probably has benefitted from its PAC 12 tie. I could easily see a mid-level pac12 recruit that would have selected, say Oregon or Arizona because of the PAC 10 ties over Utah and its mountain west tie.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

It is cyclical. But the lack of OLine play in these games is frightening. But I agree with the poster that said Helton was a bad hire. Nice guy, USC guy, but he is their Foge Fazio I am sorry. That job would be attractive to anyone, not sure what they were thinking with this hire. Oregon has made some questionable hires after Kelly. I think Peterson was a great hire at UW and Leach at WSU. Chip Kelly is a GREAT hire.

I do think Rivals way overrates SoCal QB's, look at all of the high 4 and 5 star QB's each year that are not good QB's when they get to college. It is like 20 years ago when scouting services overrated Western Pa QB's and OL based on the run of talent in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I think this same thing now applies to SoCal High School QB's. Looking at the Rivals database it is like 30-40% of especially the "Pro" style QB's ranked in their top 10 are from SoCal.

 

[HailtoPitt]

The Pac 12 isn't going anywhere.

 

[California Panther]

Sports on the west coast, on any level, is irrelevant. Life and culture on the west coast is irrelevant as well. No one cares.

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[persp]

The Pac 12 just has to start giving a crap about playing defense again. Ever since Chip Kelly hit Oregon, the rest of the league went full blown offense to keep up. Its a glorified Conference USA at this point.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

USC has been a national title contender since the 1930s or so. Washington State produces a lot of pro talent too. There are still good players from the pacific islands who are anxious to get to the mainland. Stanford recruits nationally. Nike is still in Oregon. So even if they're weaker than the SEC or can't match the Big 10 and SEC in attendance/revenue, I don't think they're remotely about to be dropped below a P5 status.

 

[steel_curtain]

USC has been a national title contender since the 1930s or so. Washington State produces a lot of pro talent too. There are still good players from the pacific islands who are anxious to get to the mainland. Stanford recruits nationally. Nike is still in Oregon. So even if they're weaker than the SEC or can't match the Big 10 and SEC in attendance/revenue, I don't think they're remotely about to be dropped below a P5 status.

-They wont get dropped. But there are some murky waters ahead. This was indeed the worst bowl performance in bowl history. UCLA is going to rebound hard, Stanford should rebound, USC and Washington are ok, the rest at this point need a lot of work and just arent good right now.

-Basketball is in trouble. They have a major FBI investigation going on with Arizona (who is in deep shit for buying recruits), Oregon, and USC. UCLA can make a big splash in recruiting, ASU looks great if they hold Hurley, the rest, blah. They will rebound if the 3 schools under investigation for cheating dont get nailed.

-Baseball is what I cant figure out. They are getting crushed in baseball recruiting, and this is a major switch. They have 2 of the Top 3 baseball teams all time in USC and Arizona State, recent champions in UCLA, Arizona and Oregon State, yet the rest of the league simply cannot recruit. The collapse of ASU baseball is as stunning as the rise in ASU basketball. And while they should have 5-6 excellent teams every year, they are ending up with around 2-3, but they are still winning titles consistently in baseball from 1 program or another stepping up. They are still baseball king, but all in all the whole league is way down historically.

-The entire league is down, across all 3 sports.

 

[OriginalEther]

It's a cyclical.

Bingo
I mean, look at how the Sec has dropped from a few years ago. Still strong, of course, but a lot of teams have dropped off

That, and it is folly to judge a conference just off of bowl records, given how quirky the whole system is. This year, the PAC 12 was ok, not great, in other non conference games

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

USC has been a national title contender since the 1930s or so. Washington State produces a lot of pro talent too. There are still good players from the pacific islands who are anxious to get to the mainland. Stanford recruits nationally. Nike is still in Oregon. So even if they're weaker than the SEC or can't match the Big 10 and SEC in attendance/revenue, I don't think they're remotely about to be dropped below a P5 status.

They'll never drop below 5th, but you really have to wonder if they can close the gap between them and #4 (Big Ten or Big 12). They are totally reliant on California HS football and for cultural reasons, I can see California kids and parents going away from football at higher rates than kids in TX, FL, Ohio, the bible belt, etc.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

-They wont get dropped. But there are some murky waters ahead. This was indeed the worst bowl performance in bowl history. UCLA is going to rebound hard, Stanford should rebound, USC and Washington are ok, the rest at this point need a lot of work and just arent good right now.

-Basketball is in trouble. They have a major FBI investigation going on with Arizona (who is in deep shit for buying recruits), Oregon, and USC. UCLA can make a big splash in recruiting, ASU looks great if they hold Hurley, the rest, blah. They will rebound if the 3 schools under investigation for cheating dont get nailed.

-Baseball is what I cant figure out. They are getting crushed in baseball recruiting, and this is a major switch. They have 2 of the Top 3 baseball teams all time in USC and Arizona State, recent champions in UCLA, Arizona and Oregon State, yet the rest of the league simply cannot recruit. The collapse of ASU baseball is as stunning as the rise in ASU basketball. And while they should have 5-6 excellent teams every year, they are ending up with around 2-3, but they are still winning titles consistently in baseball from 1 program or another stepping up. They are still baseball king, but all in all the whole league is way down historically.

-The entire league is down, across all 3 sports.

You follow college baseball recruiting? Really??

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

California's population is about four times bigger than Ohio and 20? million more than Texas. It's still a solid base even if it is true that their parents might be more likely to opt out of football. And the conference still has some back up talent bases in Washington, the pacific islands, and Utah. African American and Polynesian public high school football is still big in SoCal in addition to the private academy machines.

Not saying it'll be a top conference in football but a lot of the western states are growing in population and alumni base and silicon valley donations so I don't see why they shouldn't recover.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

They'll never drop below 5th, but you really have to wonder if they can close the gap between them and #4 (Big Ten or Big 12). They are totally reliant on California HS football and for cultural reasons, I can see California kids and parents going away from football at higher rates than kids in TX, FL, Ohio, the bible belt, etc.

The one thing, if you can shoot up Larry Scott with truth serum I am sure he has buyers remorse in bringing in Colorado and Utah. Neither really brings much to the table. They should have went big and went into Texas and/or Oklahoma

 

[steel_curtain]

You follow college baseball recruiting? Really??

-I follow all major sports College Football, basketball, baseball, NFL, NHL, and MLB. The only sport I do not follow nor do I have a team is in the NBA.

 

[gbgpanther]

-I follow all major sports College Football, basketball, baseball, NFL, NHL, and MLB. The only sport I do not follow nor do I have a team is in the NBA.

It will take Chip about 3 years to get his people in place and I am not talking players. Well known at Oregon

 

[ThePanthers]

The one thing, if you can shoot up Larry Scott with truth serum I am sure he has buyers remorse in bringing in Colorado and Utah. Neither really brings much to the table. They should have went big and went into Texas and/or Oklahoma

They did shoot big and Texas said no. Although I can't believe they passed on Oklahoma when they wanted to move the second time.

A big thing that hurt that everyone praised a few years ago is them taking the biggest pay check but giving up a ton of control of their scheduling with their tv contract. Also going alone on the Pac network. They've lost a ton if exposure and and admin and fans are pissed about their game times and lack of control.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

You guys have it all wrong. We are talking about the Conference of Champions

 

[renrut416]

Can we compete in the ACC Coastal?