SALT LAKE CITY — Back when conference convergence was in its infancy, one sportswriter covering the Big 12 said he had no issues whatsoever with the far-flung Mountain West Conference. He pointed out MWC writers got to cover games in San Diego, Honolulu and Las Vegas. His road trips included Ames, Iowa; Manhattan, Kansas; and Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Today’s Pac-12 isn’t a bad road trip, either. It has its sun schools, its green schools and its mountain schools — all better road trips than visiting the flatlands.
But winning games is a different story.
Another bowl season closed out this week with the “Conference of Champions” winning three of its seven games, the worst record of any power conference. Those wins came by a total of just four points. A year earlier, the league went 1-8 in bowl games and winless in NCAA tournament play.
Thanks to The Oregonian’s John Canzano, we now know the Pac-12 is taking its slippage seriously. It has hired a public relations/crisis management firm to “protect and enhance” its brand.
In other words, regain its reputation.
How’s this for a possible marketing campaign? “Visit the Pac-12. Weather’s great but our teams aren’t.”
According to Canzano, suggestions from the PR firm included “shift(ing) the conversation” away from negative media, expanding media partnerships and engaging new national partners. But that’s all office business.
Down in the trenches is where change happens.
Both formal and informal studies have been conducted by different sports organizations over the years, searching for ways to attract fans. It surprised no one to learn the attraction usually hinges on winning. For its part, the Pac-12 can’t seem to defeat anybody but itself. Topdan.com says the conference is 65-55 all-time against the Big Ten in football, 28-11 vs. the ACC, 45-51 against the Big 12 and 15-19 vs. the SEC. This year’s non-conference record against P5 teams was 2-8.
Coaches like to say winning is cyclical.
Try telling that to Alabama.
The Pac-12 is just 7-25 against P5 non-conference opponents this basketball season. None of the league’s teams is ranked. Six of the teams haven't won a game against a power team.
Problems aside, the Pac-12 has name recognition. Weak as USC’s and UCLA’s teams were this year in football, people know them. Other conference teams such as Washington, Stanford and Oregon have regularly been on the national radar. Utah won two BCS bowls before joining the conference. Colorado won a national championship in 1990. The recent slide has prompted some media members to argue the conference doesn’t deserve P5 status. That’s clickbait. Try tuning in to the Mid-American Game of the Week for comparisons.
The Pac-12 commands many times the television revenue Group of Five conferences receive. For Utah, the revenue jump from the Mountain West was at least tenfold. Meanwhile, Pac-12 talent is far closer to other power conferences than it is to G5s. That may not seem the case, considering the conference went a modest 9-5 against G5 teams in football. But NCAA figures show there were 210 NFL players from Pac-12 teams to start the season — more than twice that from any G5 conference. One hundred NFL players came from the American Athletic Conference, while 63 came from MWC teams and 39 from the MAC.
The SEC had 335 NFL players, the Big Ten 238, ACC 228 and Big 12 123.
Although the Pac-12 plays in a distant time zone, it has a rich talent base. Newsweek reported in September that California high schools produced more NFL players (185) than any state except Florida (211).
That’s enough talent for the Pac-12 to rise above its problems.
There’s no denying the league has image issues. Much of the blame goes on the glamour schools, USC and UCLA, which have vastly underperformed. If you can’t stir interest in La-La Land, you have problems.
The conference rightfully should take a critical look at itself. But while the Pac-12 might be facing a crisis, it’s realistically not facing a downgrade. It’s still a long way from a future of playing road games in El Paso.