Weekly Six Pac: Four Corners, Too Much

1. Rumors about the future of the Pac-12 just won’t go away. Another week has passed without any firm news on a new media rights deal. Consequently, more rumors have surfaced about teams ready to bail on the conference. In this iteration, an Oklahoma-based radio show claims that Arizona and Colorado are at the front of the line to join the Big 12 once the media rights deal is finalized. On top of the questions about the source, it begs the question of why the programs would wait until after the rights deal is complete, when it would seemingly cost more to exit. Still, it’s hard to find financial indicators pointing in a positive direction.

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2. In a recent edition of the Six Pac, I wrote about WSU’s belt-tightening in response to the Pac-12 repayment to Comcast. It seems that the story is only getting worse for the Cougs, who are facing a budget shortfall of over $11 million for this year. A major part of WSU’s financial burden comes not only from exploding costs, but diminishing revenues. The media rights repayment and decreased enrollment on top of inflation-driven cost increases have created a bad outlook. Keep in mind that WSU and Oregon State are the two Pac-12 teams who would likely have the toughest time finding a Power 5 lifeboat if the conference splinters. If the budget faces these kinds of challenges with Power 5 revenue, it promises to get significantly more difficult without it.

3. Oklahoma softball will enter the Championship Series of the College World Series on an all-time record winning streak. That streak was in serious jeopardy, though, against Stanford in the semifinals. A day after the Cardinal eliminated UW from the tournament, they gave the two-time defending champion Sooners all they could handle. NiJaree Canady continued her pitching dominance in a game that went to extra innings. She entered in the 5th and pitched four shutout innings against the best lineup in the country before eventually surrendering two in the 9th.

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4. Oregon came out of nowhere to win the Pac-12 Baseball tournament, so they looked like a longshot to make any noise in the NCAA tournament. They knocked off a good Xavier team twice and beat SEC Champion Vanderbilt to advance to the Super Regionals. They will face Oral Roberts, the team that upset Oklahoma State to emerge from the same regional that UW was in. Since Oral Roberts is a lower seed, Oregon will host the Super Regional despite not hosting their own regional. Taking two of three from ORU would put the Ducks in the College World Series after finishing sixth in their own conference.

5. In the never-ending quest to find good off-season content, House of Sparky is counting down the 10 best ASU football player in program history. Their #9 is a player who was near and dear to my heart as a child, former Minnesota Vikings Offensive Lineman Randall McDaniel.

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6. If you want even more on conference alignment, Write for California has a great summary of how the instability impacts the Bears. Cal is in a similar position as UW as the only two continuous members of the conference from 1915 to the present. They’re also both academically strong public institutions in or around major metro areas. UW has the greater football tradition, but there is clear overlap in the questions both programs have to ask themselves.