SI:AM | The Schools That Hold the Pac-12’s Future in Their Hands

Plus, our World Cup round-of-16 power rankings.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. All this conference realignment talk is bumming me out.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏈 The Pac-12’s precarious future

🌏 Ranking the teams left in the World Cup

✈️ Why the Jets shouldn’t give up on Zach Wilson

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It looks like the Pac-12 will survive this round of realignment

The future of the Pac-12 is hanging in the balance.

After USC and UCLA agreed to leave the conference for the Big Ten last year and Colorado’s decision last week to exit in favor of a return to the Big 12, the Pac-12 is in a vulnerable position. Several remaining members are being courted by other conferences, and as late as last night, the entire league appeared to be at risk of falling apart.

The focus right now is on Arizona, which is nearing an agreement to join the Big 12. Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde reported last night that the move has not yet been completed, but the parties involved are “hopeful” it will get done. And the Big 12 has its eyes on adding two other Pac-12 schools, Arizona State and Utah. That, combined with the Big Ten’s reported interest in adding Washington and Oregon, threatens the viability of the entire conference. Richard Johnson writes that “the Pac-12 is looking like it can break apart at seemingly a moment’s notice.”

But this is a rapidly evolving situation. Forde reported this morning that conference officials are meeting today to hammer out a deal that they hope will prevent the league from falling apart. A lot of things remain up in the air.

The Pac-12 is like a precariously arranged set of dominoes right now. Arizona appears poised to jump ship, and Arizona State could soon follow. The schools share a board of regents, so it doesn’t make sense that the board would approve a move that strengthens one school’s financial position at the expense of the other’s. The Pac-12 could survive without the two Arizona schools, though. While the Wildcats and Sun Devils have strong men’s basketball programs, it’s football that drives these conference realignment decisions, and neither school boasts a notable football program. The same can’t be said for Oregon and Washington, the strongest football programs of the remaining Pac-12 teams. Losing those schools would mean losing the conference’s cornerstones (not to mention leave the Pac-12 with as few as four teams).

So in many ways, Oregon and Washington hold the Pac-12’s future in their hands. There are several ways it could play out, according to Johnson. They could join the Big Ten, which is very much up in the air at this point. James Crepea of The Oregonian reported last night that Oregon would accept an invitation to the Big Ten if offered, but The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported this morning that the idea “appears to have lost momentum overnight” and ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported shortly thereafter that Oregon is now expected to remain in the Pac-12.

Oregon and Washington, then, could be the flagship members of a new-look Pac-12, which could take several forms. One option would be to invite teams from smaller conferences—perhaps SMU, San Diego State and a member of the Mountain West, Johnson proposes. The bigger swing would be to invite Clemson and Florida State, which have been unhappy with the ACC, to join a new coast-to-coast super conference.

Regardless of how the Washington/Oregon situation shakes out, USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten laid groundwork for the dissolution of geography-based conferences, and college sports will be worse off for it. Maybe not for the schools themselves and the administrators whose salaries will swell thanks to richer media-rights deals. But it’s a terrible outcome for the athletes and the fans.

The thing that makes college football great is that it’s an intensely regional sport with national appeal. Conferences aren’t just for negotiating television contracts. They foster rivalries and develop strong brand identities. Turning on a Big Ten game in November meant watching two teams grind it out in the trenches in a 38-degree rain. The Big 12 was where all the biggest teams in the country’s most football-mad state battled for bragging rights every week. The Pac-12 had a reputation for games that went off the rails in the middle of the night. Geography-based conferences were good for athletes, too. A football player from California could commit to a Pac-12 school and know that most of his games would be a short drive or plane ride away for his family members. A tennis player using their partial scholarship to get a degree could commit to a Big Ten school and not have to worry about cross-country travel for matches that interfere with their schoolwork. But decisions in sports aren’t made by the athletes who play the games or the fans who pay to watch them. They’re made by the executives who are always chasing bigger checks. Thankfully, it appears that Pac-12 officials haven’t totally disregarded the importance of tradition.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated (Horan); AAP/Imago (James); Aflosport/Imago (Miyazawa); Keith McInnes/SSP/Imago (James); Jose Breton/Imago (Putellas); Richard Wainwright/Imago (Caicedo); Zuma Wire/Imago (Renard)

• Today’s Daily Cover is Clare Brennan and Andrew Gastelum’s ranking of all 16 teams left in the Women’s World Cup.
• After watching him in the Hall of Fame game, Conor Orr argues that the Jets should still try to salvage the NFL career of Zach Wilson.
• Matt Verderame has an in-depth look at the players who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend.
• After they surprised everyone last season, Chris Herring believes the Jazz will take another step forward this year.
• The Yankees placed Anthony Rizzo on the injured list with post-concussion syndrome after his initial concussion in May went undetected.
• Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán reportedly “grew belligerent” in the clubhouse Tuesday, the day before the team announced he would be entering inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse. 
• The WNBA’s two superteams will face off in New York on Sunday when the Liberty host the Aces. Tickets for the highly anticipated matchup are still available starting at $40 and topping out at $1,100, per SI Tickets.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. DeMarcus Ware’s national anthem before the Hall of Fame game, as a tribute to his former teammate Demaryius Thomas.

4. Cade Marlowe’s go-ahead grand slam in the ninth inning for the Mariners against the Angels.

3. Yankees prospect Anthony Seigler’s ability to play defense with both hands.

2. Diana Taurasi’s 10,000th career point. She’s the first player in WNBA history to reach that milestone.

1. The raccoon in the press box at a Real Salt Lake game.

SIQ

On this day in 2007, eight days after his 32nd birthday, Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs. Who did that record belong to before him?

• Mickey Mantle
• Willie Mays
• Ken Griffey Jr.
• Jimmie Foxx

Yesterday’s SIQ: On Aug. 3, 2001, the roof at Toronto’s SkyDome was closed in the middle of a game between the Blue Jays and Orioles in an attempt to offer players and fans relief from what?

• Cold temperatures
• Gale-force winds
• Wildfire smoke
• A swarm of bugs

Answer: a swarm of bugs. Thousands of aphids descended upon the stadium in the third inning. The game was not delayed (as it had been during a similar incident in August 1990), but home plate umpire Tim Welke did call for the stadium’s roof to be closed.

The game sounded like a total nightmare. Blue Jays starter Kelvim Escobar said, “I felt something in my mouth, but I didn’t want to think it was a bug.” Toronto infielder Jeff Frye wore a dust mask to try to keep the bugs out of his mouth and nose. “When you ran, you got a face full of bugs,” Blue Jays catcher Darrin Fletcher said.

“I couldn’t take a deep breath on the mound because I’d suck in dinner,” Orioles pitcher Kris Foster said. He pitched a scoreless seventh inning, anyway.

Closing the roof prevented more bugs from entering the ballpark, but players and fans were left to contend with the insects that had already taken up residency inside. The Blue Jays had given away bandanas before the game, which fans used to try to swat the bugs away, but many fans still decided to leave the stadium after the bugs descended.

In addition to bothering athletes and sports fans in Toronto, the aphids also harmed soybean crops in Ontario. The explosion of aphids led to another issue. Ladybugs, which feed on aphids, experienced a population boom in the months afterward.