Imagine for a moment that Reggie Bush and the USC Trojans had gotten the same treatment as Cam Newton and the Auburn Tigers. They should have, but they did not. Then imagine what would have happened if Oklahoma and Texas had left the Big XII in 2010 to join the Pacific-10 Conference, along with Colorado and Utah. History is replete with turning points, and these are two of the inflections for thought.

As it stands today, though, the Pacific-12 Conference—the conference of real NCAA champions, as it were, not faux championships from corrupt, greedy organizations created out of thin air—will cease to exist by this time next year. Oregon and Washington will be joining UCLA and USC in the B1G, while Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah will be going to the Big XII along with Colorado … all after the 2023-2024 year.

That will leave, for now, California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State as all that remains of the once-proud conference with roots going all the way back to 1915. But the old adage—adapt or die—remains the same. The Beavers and especially the Cougars are destined to join the Mountain West Conference, more appropriate for the size of each school and its ‘TV footprint” … whatever the fuck that means right now.

Currently, the MWC’s 11-campus membership doesn’t include any schools in either the state of Oregon or the state of Washington, so that works for the MWC. And other than the Beavers’ brilliance on the baseball field—three College World Series titles since 2006—neither school is really an athletic juggernaut or powerhouse. They both will fit right in with other state schools already in the conference.

As for California and Stanford, the two schools certainly should stick together: academically and in all other sports outside of football (and basketball), these are two of the best colleges in the nation. Neither alumni base gets fired up about football like a Notre Dame fan base, so going independent is not really an option. However, the Bears and the Cardinal need football TV revenue to maintain excellence elsewhere.

Stanford is the all-time leader with 134 NCAA championships—and Cal ranks 11th overall with 42 NCAA titles. Yet neither the B1G nor the Big XII seem inclined to want the schools in their respective conferences. The Bears have played in just four bowl games over the last 13 seasons, and the Cardinal haven’t been in a bowl game since 2018, despite being invited to 10 straight in the decade before that shift in fortune.

Football is life? Evidently, college football is life for a lot of people in America—more so than 176 combined NCAA titles in all sports played collegiately. That will be the lasting legacy of the Pac-12 Conference (2011-2024), the Pacific-10 Conference (1978-2011), the Pacific-8 Conference (1968-1978), the Athletic Association of Western Universities (1959-1968), and the Pacific Coast Conference (1915-1959): Greed wasn’t good.