I don't believe there was a ton of excitement about Nix when he originally transfered. Crazy how much that has changed.
* Oregon wanted Texas & Oklahoma to join the PAC in 2011, saving and strengthening it (along with Ok State and TTU). OSU/WSU were opposed * Oregon was in favor of adding Big-12 teams to the PAC in 2021 when several of those teams asked to join after Texas/OK announced they were moving to the SEC. That would have saved the PAC. OSU/WSU were opposed * Oregon voted to accept ESPN's new media deal that would have saved the PAC. OSU/WSU were against accepting * OSU/WSU, along with ASU & USC, were the principal cheerleaders and supporters of Larry Scott, every step of the way fuck OSU/WSU. They were the primary members of the cabal of hubris and incompetence that was responsible for destroying the PAC-12. And now they are the whiny little shits dodging their own accountability while blaming their situation on everybody else
this is what I was told by a couple of pretty reliable people. Phil Knight was supposedly in favor of expansion for years
I shouldn't have said vote. What I was told is that Oregon advocated for those proposed moves I do believe there was a vote on expansion in 2021 and the vote was 8-4 against; and Oregon was one of the 4 yes votes. I'm not sure if those votes are ever made public
actually, one is from Portland, a UofO alum, and just very dialed into the thinking in the UofO AD...and knows uncle Phil pretty well
no, they weren't but the demise of the Pac-12 can be distilled down to about 4 really bad decisions, (and other smaller decisions) any of which going the other direction could have saved the PAC 1) refusing admission to Texas, Oklahoma, Ok. State, and Texas Tech in 2011 2) signing the biggest media deal in college history in 2012, BUT, refusing to partner with ESPN/FOX to create a dedicated broadcast network (those two things are directly related as Larry Scott used Texas wanting to keep their Longhorn Network alive with shared content as a lever to convince a majority of schools to vote no. Then, shortly after in 2012, he was primary in refusing to partner with ESPN/FOX on a PAC-12 network; and he convinced enough schools that the conference owning 100% of the new network would be a windfall. Instead, it was a money-losing boondoggle. He then convinced the schools to form their own network and he hired his college roommate to run it further, when it came time to secure a new media deal this year, the PAC had no leverage with ESPN/FOX for a new linear TV package. Those potential media partners had no skin in a shared network game) 3) voting against expansion with select Big-12 teams in 2021 when those teams were desperate to join the Pac-12 and willing to negotiate terms 4) refusing the offer from ESPN in 2022 that would have given the Pac-12 a contract similar to what the Big-12 received I'm about 85% certain that Oregon was in favor of expansion in 2011 & 2021 as well as accepting ESPN's offer in 2022. I don't know how Oregon felt about the creation of a 100% owned Pac-12 network. I've been told that Phil Knight had a low opinion of Larry Scott but I don't know if that was an evolved opinion or it started that way. The 4 biggest Larry Scott supporters every step of the way were USC/OSU/WSU/ASU and were always in lockstep with Scott; and Scott opposed expansion consistently. What USC did was about as underhanded as you can imagine. They were actually working to torpedo any opportunities the Pac-12 had for survival while plotting their own exit. USC is far more responsible than any other school for the death of the PAC
