TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – Money talks. And it can destroy. Walmart builds its mammoth facility in you region, the small stores fade away. Corporate giants take over your local bank, your fees go up and personal help disappears. Giant grocery store builds down the street from you and the local mom and pop grocery store puts up a for sale sign. Professional sports franchises pay out hundreds of millions to players because they can afford to They have lots of money, lots of power. Did you miss the Washington commanders selling for 6.05 billion dollars? The Washington Commanders, the worse run NFL franchise? The Dallas Cowboys are worth an estimated 8 billion. The Seahawks are worth $4.5 billion. Big money has flowed down to college football. Ohio State generates the most revenue at $251 million. Three of the top 10 revenue producers are from the Big Ten —Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State. Michigan State and Indiana from the Big Ten are in the top 20. Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois are in the top 25. Oregon is 19th at $153 million and Washington is 25th at $145 million. Now the Big Ten is set to swallow Washington and Oregon and with Arizona State and Utah probably headed to the Big 12, you can kiss the Pac-12 goodbye. All that would be left of the conference is Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State. We can call them the Left-Over Conference. It’s a sad day for a conference that has been around for over 100 years, although there might be a reprieve. Washington is dragging its feet on moving to the Big Ten. So we will see. Much blame for the apparent demise of the Pac-12 is being laid on Commissioner George Kliavkoff. His negotiations for a conference media deal fell like a one-ton stone in a lake. Kliavkoff’s deal was centered on streaming media, which may be the future, but is not what the rest of the conference wanted to hear. So Arizona bolted to the Big 12 and Arizona State and Utah may follow. And, of course, the Big Ten stepped in to apparently swallow up Washington and Oregon. All good things come to end sometime, but with lots of cash come power and that power has destroyed the Pac-12. You can hear the taps now. I don’t know what happens to Washington State and Oregon State the two schools most vulnerable. The probably will be added to the Mountain West. What happens to the annual Apple Cup? It may wind up rotting at the bottom of the barrel. That’s it for today. Stay safe.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.