Dots: Blowin’ Up Like the 4th of July

Happy 4th of July Dawg fans, and welcome to today’s Dots.

• With the nuclear-bomb announcement last week that USC and UCLA would join the Big 10 in 2024, there is the resulting fallout, with opinions scrambling to predict different scenarios for the future of the remaining 10 teams and the future (if any) of the Pac-12 Conference.
• The day after the USC/UCLA announcement, the Pac-12 board of directors voted to approve expanding the Conference.
• Doug Aller (the Athletic): Pac-12 expansion candidates: Where should the conference look first without USC and UCLA? “The obvious hurdle: The Pac-12’s expansion options are not great.”
• Jon Wilner: Pac-12 survival guide: Five forces that will define the path to salvation, or extinction and Pac-12 mailbag: Kliavkoff’s culpability, expansion options, WSU’s connections and more
• But before we get too far talking about Pac-12 expansion, UWDP fam Raymond Lucas Jr reports from 24/7sports: College football conference realignment: Four Pac-12 teams in discussions to move to Big 12, per report
  “Sources indicate to WildcatAuthority that there will be significant discussions centered around Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah making their way to the soon-to-be-altered Big 12 Conference... Oregon and Washington are both actively looking to get out of the conference, Stanford is rumored to be a serious candidate to join the Big 10 with Notre Dame“

• On a more satisfying note, UW football has had a flurry of recent commitments coming off a strong recruiting push - a positive sign for what many view as Kalen DeBoer’s most unproven area of coaching. The 2023 class currently sits 2nd behind USC and 16th nationally. View all the current commitments in one easy place.

• UW soccer alum Dylan Teves - who helped lead the Huskies to the NCAA title game last year - joined the Seattle Sounders as a Homegrown Player over the winter. He scored his first goal as a Sounder on Saturday:

• UW men’s crew wins The Visitors’ Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta (Seattle Times) “The Huskies came from behind in the final 100 meters to chase down a crew from England’s Tideway Scullers School and Molesey Boat Club”:

Have a safe and fun 4th of July and Go Dawgs!!