By Art Thiel in Post Alley (thanks to Ed M.)
Did the University of Washington just move to Oklahoma City?
No. UW did not replicate the stunt that cost Seattle the Sonics 15 years ago, and counting. The university and its football team remain in Montlake, where next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, six or seven games will be played at Husky Stadium, the self-proclaimed greatest setting in college sports. The Huskies also will play in those years six or seven road games, maybe including Pullman, which some consider a good thing. And the football program probably will make enough to sustain all the other UW sports that make little or no revenue.
So regarding the more hysterical responders among the People Who Wear Purple to the abandonment of the westerly Pac-12 by Washington and Oregon in favor of the midwesterly Big Ten, I have two words:
Bow down.
The Huskies are a part of a rearrangement. Not a relocation. And while the Pac-12 Conference and its antecedents survived 108 years and created many championships, heartfelt sentiments, scandals and intrigues, by the start of the 2024 school year it will be what the rotary phone is to modern telecommunications.
A relic. Deal with it.
The Pac-12 and the other big-time college sports conferences operate as part of a trade association (called the NCAA) to promote a mutual well-being of the industry (think: The Dairy Farmers of Washington). In contrast, the pro sports leagues that have come to dominate our sports-business consciousness are monopoly operators whose massive leverage includes the ability to extort their municipalities for financial benefits. Pay up tax dollars for facilities, or see a team relocate to another city more eager to bend over.
Pro sports are far more ruthless than big-time college sports, which are jealous of that. Because the programs are currently tied to those gosh-darn anvils called schools, the trade association members have no leverage to extort anyone except each other. They have given over financial control of their top programs to the entertainment industry (linear and cable networks and their streamer offspring). So the CEOs of ESPN/Disney and Fox Sports have become commissioners-without-portfolios, able to dictate business terms and conditions via their handsome rights fees.
Without saying so, the TV moguls determined the Pac-12 was inefficient, unworthy of rescue. Why? (continued)