Pac-12 Tuesday: Dia De Los Muertos for the Conference of Champions

Prologue to this delayed installment of Pac-12 Tuesday: I originally began writing an edition to coincide with Halloween spotlighting some of the conference’s memorable Oct. 31 games.

There was Stanford’s thrilling defeat of Washington State in 2015 in which Christian McCaffrey’s late-game heroics kept the Cardinal in the Playoff hunt and strengthened the do-everything back’s budding Heisman Trophy case.

In 1998, a UCLA team leading the pursuit of the inaugural Bowl Championship Series title survived a 28-24 fright against a one-win Stanford team — a game ostensibly decided on a fumble just shy of the goal line.

Bill Dwyre’s feature from the following day’s Los Angeles Times reflects why Dwyre is recognized as an institution of L.A. media.

And then there’s 2009, USC at Oregon.

I didn’t want to go into too much detail on the Ducks’ 47-20 rout of the Trojans on Halloween 2009, having done a deeper dive into that game and its role in reshaping the conference on my defunct blog. It felt a bit like self-plagiarism, even if the column is gone to the ether forever.

However, USC coach Lincoln Riley made comments on his weekly radio show that tie into the impact and fallout from that game. Riley noted the Trojans’ struggles over the last decade-plus, and how that factored into the negative perception of the conference as a whole that festered.

In a vacuum, it could come off as typical and longstanding USC self-importance. I have in the past referenced an old poster I remember seeing growing up of two cartoon surfers in USC and UCLA colors on a Pac-10 beach towel, saying to each other “Besides us, who else is there?”

But Riley’s sentiment wasn’t intended with self-aggrandizement, nor was it at all off-base. USC going 15 years with just one conference championship, and at most once being in genuine contention for the national title in that time did harm perception of the conference.

Now, whether that perception was always accurate or justified is debatable. Despite the bad seasons — most notably 2017 and 2018 — I contend the conference was more entertaining and top-to-bottom better for much of 2009 into 2023 than it was for the bulk of USC’s dynasty from 2003 through 2008.

That’s subjective opinion, of course. Empirical evidence suggests Oregon handing USC its most lopsided conference loss in 12 years on Halloween 2009, however, can be more definitively argued as fact.

Chip Kelly’s vision for the future of offensive football ran circles around the Pete Carroll-coached Trojans, while at the same time stripping USC of the air of invincibility that defined its dynasty.

Maybe if Oregon doesn’t run roughshod on USC that Halloween night, USC more effectively weathers the impending NCAA sanctions and realizes the BCS dreams college football media was seemingly wishcasting in the build-up to the 2012 season.

And, in the same vein, perhaps if Arizona doesn’t beat USC on Halloween week that 2012 campaign, the Trojans don’t go on the season-ending slide that made Lane Kiffin’s tarmac firing 11 months later an inevitability — which in turn prevents the decade of instability from hiring Steve Sarkisian then tabbing Clay Helton to be a lame duck for six years.

Rewriting history to maintain the USC glass ceiling also deprives us of the memories of that Halloween in Eugene, which helped usher in the incredible 10 years of rivalry between Oregon and Stanford.

Utah’s rise upon joining the conference, the return of Washington to national prominence, even far more memorable USC-UCLA rivalry games all spawned from the end of the dynasty.

Perhaps the conference wouldn’t face its demise if one program had continued to dominant. But it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun for the last 14 years.

The final month of Pac-12 football is upon us. The grim realization that a conference as instrumental as the Big Ten or SEC in shaping the sport is near its end sets in.

Other conferences have come and gone throughout college football’s history, but few ever just…vanished the way in which the Pac-12 is headed. The Big East, for example, which ceased football operations a decade ago, continued on in its original pursuit as the nation’s premier basketball league.

The American Athletic Conference that sprouted in Big East football’s wake, meanwhile, was the same conference as its Big East predecessor for all intents and purposes.

Likewise, the Mountain West Conference is the spiritual successor of the Western Athletic Conference. The MWC’s combination of prominent programs during the WAC’s outstanding ‘80s and ‘90s — Wyoming, Air Force and Colorado State all produced Top 25 teams, and San Diego State boasted a Heisman Trophy contender — as well as the members responsible for the WAC’s 2000s resurgence in Boise State, Fresno State and Hawai’i keeps the WAC legacy alive.

When the Pac-12 wraps up next month in Las Vegas, that’s it barring some 23rd hour miracle. Even if Oregon State and Washington State partner up with Mountain West members and retain the Pac-12 branding, it’s not the Pac-12. Not really.

Maybe the Pac-12 ending for the best.

Make no mistake: When I write “best,” that only means within the context of reality. The actual best-case scenario would be retaining regional conferences and not a short-sighted rush to form bloated subsidiaries of Fox and ESPN.

But in the framework of the inevitable, the Pac-12 closes shop leaving with us lifetimes of memories worth more than a game between teams on the Atlantic coast billed as the Pac-12.

What was originally intended as Halloween edition of Pac-12 Tuesday became a Dia De Los Muertos Pac-12 Wednesday: The day designated for not just remembering, but truly celebrating, those no longer with us.

Miguel’s rendition of “Remember Me” at the conclusion of the excellent 2017 film Coco always makes me misty, and it’s a perfect encapsulation of the joyfulness found through sadness inspired on the Day of the Dead.

It may seem silly to write about an affiliation of athletic programs in these terms, but it’s less about the brand of the Pac-12 than the memories and people tied to it:

• Attending the Pac-10 Basketball Tournament as a boy with my family

• Being in the stands of Sun Devil Stadium on a sweltering October day in 1996 when Arizona State beat USC in one of the conference’s greatest games ever

• My mom crying happy tears after Arizona’s 1997 national championship

• Graduating from a Pac-12 university where I met my wife, who was a member of the women’s basketball program

• The many great people I have come to know covering the conference professionally, including befriending someone in the late Chris Dufresne whose work I long aspired to emulate in quality

The conference might end, but the memories will never leave. And if anyone chooses to produce a version of the Bill Walton tie-dyed shirt with a big, bold Pac-12 sugar skull, I’ll happily wear it every Nov. 1.