This week on the Daly Dose, we are joined by a longtime friend of the show to break down the coming 2022 College Football season!
We discuss the massive changes in conference alignment, the NIL pitfalls that could be coming, and the Big Ten signing a new massive television deal.
Then, we jump into conference previews for the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 12, SEC and even a few Group of 5 schools! We predict some surprise teams, some conference contenders, and our picks for conference champions.
Finally, we make our selections for the four teams that will make the College Football Playoff, our predictions for the Heisman trophy, and we let you know who will be winning the National Championship!
This week on the Daly Dose, we are joined by a longtime friend of the show to break down the coming 2022 College Football season!
We discuss the massive changes in conference alignment, the NIL pitfalls that could be coming, and the Big Ten signing a new massive television deal.
Then, we jump into conference previews for the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 12, SEC and even a few Group of 5 schools! We predict some surprise teams, some conference contenders, and our picks for conference champions.
Finally, we make our selections for the four teams that will make the College Football Playoff, our prediction for the Heisman trophy, and who will be winning the National Championship!
It was another Alamo (Bowl) to forget for the Pac-12 as their representative Oregon Ducks took a hard loss from the Oklahoma Sooners Wednesday night 32-47. While the Ducks did manage to muster up 32 points, the score does not accurately reflect the game. Oklahoma moved the ball seemingly at will against the Ducks. The Sooners racked up over 300 yards on the ground, while averaging nine yards per pass. With the loss, the Pac 12 is now 0-2 for the 2021-2022 bowl game season. They share the spot for worst win percentage this year with the SEC, who is also winless.
The Valero Alamo Bowl has been a harsh reality check for the Pac-12 for the last 12 years. In 2010, the Big 12 and the Pac 12 signed a contract guaranteeing the participation of the best available teams in each conference based on ranking. Historically these games have not gone in the Pac 12’s favor. Their record since 2010 is 3-9.
The trip to the Alamodome has not always been a death sentence for the Pac 12. For the first half of the 2010’s it was a relatively competitive bowl filled with high scoring affairs. In 2011 Heisman Winner Robert Griffin III led his Baylor Bears over the Washington Huskies 67-56 in a game that broke the record for the highest scoring game in NCAA bowl history. This was followed three years later with another high scoring game that saw 14 ranked UCLA hold off 11 ranked Kansas State for a 40-35 win for the Pac-12. In fact, from 2010-2014, the Pac 12 held a record of 2-3.
Then 2015 happened.
The Pac 12’s worst loss took place in 2015. Oregon, ranked 15 at the time, took on TCU, ranked 11. The game was one for the record books as TCU, who was down 31-0 at half, tied the NCAA record for largest comeback ever in a bowl game to win in triple overtime 47-41. It was a devastating loss for Oregon, and began a three-year losing streak for the Pac-12.
The loss was followed in 2016 with a 30-point beatdown by number 12 ranked Oklahoma State on number 10 ranked Colorado. Colorado is the highest ranked Pac 12 team to compete in the Valero Alamo Bowl since the College Football Playoff era began. They would again make the trip to San Antonio in 2020, only to have a similar outcome as they suffered a loss to Texas 55-23.
The Valero Alamo Bowl is proof to what everyone already knows, Pac 12 football simply cannot compete with other conferences. The conference has only two premier teams in the last 12 years, USC and Oregon. USC has never played in the bowl, and Oregon is responsible for two of the conference’s three wins. The only other team to win was Washington State who held on for a victory in 2018 against Iowa State.
The rankings going into the games make the situation worse. The Pac 12 has been the higher ranked team in seven of the twelve games since the beginning of the contract. Their record is a mere 2-5 in those games.
With Oregon’s loss Wednesday night, who in the Pac 12 can compete with anyone in the Big 12? The Ducks were the most qualified team the conference had to beat Oklahoma, the Big 12’s third best team, and they were handled soundly. The only other team the Pac 12 has to offer to a team of that caliber is Utah, who lost to SDSU and BYU. Utah will be tested in the Rose Bowl against No. 6 Ohio State, a team Oregon beat earlier in the year.
On top of everything else, the Valero Alamo Bowl is nearly always a home game for the Big 12. Ten of the twelve games have featured a Texas or Oklahoma school. The closest Pac 12 school to San Antonio is Arizona, which is a short 12-hour drive.
The Valero Alamo Bowl is a game where the Pac 12 is set up to fail from the very start, it only makes sense they extend their relationship to it until 2025. It is a move only the Pac 12 would make.
Davy Crockett once said, “You may all go to hell, I’ll go to Texas.”
In the case of the Pac-12, hell might not be such a bad option.
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