USC's dominance a problem for Pac-10
Posted: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:56 PM
When Larry Scott settles into his corner office in Walnut Creek, Calif., on July 1, and officially takes over as the Pacific-10 Conference commissioner, he’ll have several pressing football issues to tackle.
The current chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association certainly knows his way around sponsorship and broadcasting discussions. Hopefully, he knows a thing or two about football, which is the league’s biggest problem.
Televisions partnerships and bowl tie-ins aren’t what they should be. When your runner-up has to settle for a spot in the Holiday Bowl, you’re in trouble. There are worst places to be in late December than San Diego, but let’s get serious. How about something with a New Year’s Day feel to it? Perhaps somewhere outside the region to establish a recruiting foothold would be worthwhile.
This deficiency is even more troubling when considering that the Pac-10 has had only one BCS participant in each of the past six years, qualifying the bare minimum since the end of the 2002 season. If that’s going to be the case every year, Scott will quickly become sick of gazing at his lineup of the Holiday, Sun, Emerald, Las Vegas, Poinsettia and Armed Forces Bowls. The league’s coaches already have.
The SEC has long since left the Pac-10 in the dust. Recently having discovered high-octane offenses, the Big 12 has jumped way ahead as well. Unlike the Big Ten, which hasn’t won a Rose Bowl since Wisconsin beat Tyrone Willingham’s Stanford team following the 1999 campaign, the ACC and Big East can make solid claims of superiority over the Pac-10. Even the Mountain West Conference, which went 6-1 versus Pac-10 teams last season, has a case.
Although the outgoing Tom Hansen administration would never admit to it -- and Scott surely won’t either -- a big part of the problem with Pac-10 football is USC.
The Trojans opened spring practice Saturday, taking their first steps toward winning an eighth consecutive Pac-10 title.
For the first time in a while, there are some serious question marks on the Cardinal and Gold side of Los Angeles. USC probably won’t know who its quarterback will be until mid-August. Only three starters on defense return. The road schedule is daunting. But, in the end, the Trojans winning the Pac-10 is as certain as Joe Biden’s next gaffe. That’s just the way it is.
And it’s not good business.
While all the other conferences feature races that resemble bar room brawls, Scott will be leading a league that is often referred to as the Pac-1.
In each of the past seven seasons, USC has won at least 11 games, finished among the Top 4 in the Associated Press poll, participated in the BCS and, of course, won a share of the league title.
Seven-for-seven. Is this more a case of amazing productivity or easy pickings?
The Trojans have had their share of slip-ups in recent times. But when they lose, it’s usually not to a contender. They tend to drop games that for whatever reason don’t garner their undivided interest. Someone sneaks up, they fall victim to the banana peel and wish they could do it over again ... and if they were able to, they’d probably win by at least four touchdowns.
That also isn’t good business. If you are going to dominate your conference, have the courtesy to win all your games and carry the league pennant all the way to the BCS title game.
Think how unlikely it would be for any team other than USC to even come close to pulling that off for the Pac-10.
Since Washington State represented the conference in the Rose Bowl following the 2002 season, two teams have actually shared a piece of the Pac-10 crown with the Trojans. California did it in 2006, followed by Arizona State in 2007. Neither won their head-to-head matchup with USC and both also fell on their face the following year (Cal capped a 7-6 season with a victory over Air Force in the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl and ASU bumbled its way through a 5-7 campaign last season).
No one seems to be able to mount any sort of sustained challenge to this era of Trojan dominance.
Just when you think Cal is about to turn the corner, it goes back to being Cal.
Dennis Erickson’s traveling road show might have finally run out of gas in Tempe.
Oregon has had a solid run, took a couple good shots, but always came up short and will now see if Chip Kelly can get Nike’s favorite program over the hump.
Jim Harbaugh has taken Stanford up a few notches, but until SAT scores get factored into the BCS computers somehow, the Cardinal will be a nonfactor.
Over at Arizona, Mike Stoops is inching along, but with no real breakthrough in sight.
Washington State is better suited for the Big Sky Conference at this point.
Under the direction of neophyte Steve Sarkisian, Washington is destined to remain a shadow of its former self.
Mike Riley almost got it done last year at Oregon State, using smoke and mirrors, but you have to wonder when and if he’ll ever get that close again.
Rick Neuheisel at UCLA is probably the Pac-10’s best bet for providing a consistent challenge to the Trojans. But it would be better for Larry Scott if the drama wasn’t confined to just one city.
