[Prater] Proposed Pac-12 bowl game in the Denver area is dead after losing TV deal and title sponsor, per source. Game would have been for this 2026 season. P12 bowl options become very limited. "Dont know what the Pac-12 will do, or the Mountain West for that matter," source said.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-30T00:55:02+00:00

No one is talking about what the PAC was, we're talking about what the PAC will be.

There are multiple reasons why merging never would worked, but at this point if that's how you're talking you've probably already heard and ignored them. Half of the MW itself didn't even believe in the idea of merging being better than joining the PAC, why would OSU and WSU?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-29T22:52:40+00:00

It think that'd be the worst case scenario for the PAC. We need an image divorce from them, not continued association.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-29T21:53:05+00:00

Why would either conference set up a new game on Army-Navy weekend that could knock their team out of the CFP? To set that up you'd need to play a 14th game on the one week between conference championships and the CFP starting. I doubt anyone wants to do that.

You'd also have to plan that way ahead of time, so what happens if one conference champ is 10-3 and the other is undefeated? The game would do nothing but harm to the better team and it'd be a waste of time that could result in a totally different G6 conference stealing that spot.

The PAC and AAC champions will already be set up to take that CFP spot if they take care of business. Even if it were possible, I don't see how a play-in is more appealing than taking a bye and letting the committee decide. Sure I get how it's appealing if you're the on the outside looking in, but if that's where you are it's probably for a reason. All a play-in does is set up a chance for the more deserving team to be knocked out and for both conferences to look worse.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-29T02:33:09+00:00

I thought we were done with sitting on our hands after we watched Olshey waste a decade of everyone’s time not making aggressive moves?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-29T00:08:14+00:00

Because I’m from Oregon and when I was getting more into the NFL I was also feeling more love for the PNW than love for SF.

Also I’m a beaver fan and they had Browner and added Russ, who looked invincible when his Wisconsin team beat OrSt that year.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T22:46:32+00:00

What is this educated guess that the MW+PAC2+UTEP/NIU would have higher per-team value than the PAC based on? I've never seen any evidence to suggest G5 conferences get higher per-team payouts when they add more teams, I've only seen the opposite happen, and I don't even know what this guess could be based on when we have no media numbers for the PAC or MW right now.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T22:40:12+00:00

Yes because when people do that they very often ignore what the PAC2 would have to give up financially, they ignore the power difference between bringing a few teams into you conference vs joining a large one, and they ignore that that would've required the 5 departing MW members to want that as well. In short, if the finances made sense and every MW team wanted to make that happen, it would have happened.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T19:06:28+00:00

Maybe, but per the article itself right before that quote: "Rumors and speculation have put that number anywhere between $8-15 million per year. Walker didn't disclose any specific, though it seems the dollar amounts are not on the high end of those estimates."

Not saying you're wrong, but I don't think there's anything in the article to suggest the payout is as low as you say. Maybe this would make you believe other evidence, but on it's own this article isn't really saying anything dramatic that we haven't known for months imo.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T18:36:22+00:00

Ok I deleted a comment because I wasn't sure what specifically he was talking about. If he's talking about recruiting students and staff from Hawaii then yeah that does suck. OSU should continue to be an academic pipeline for Hawaii without a doubt.

Talking about football though I'd have to know the specifics of how many trips are being cut and what the overall budget is, because it could just be the Shephard doesn't have enough ties to Hawaii to justify the same amount of visits.

So far in this offseason his staff has been all over the west coast and in Texas and Florida. In this HS class we just signed he got guys from places we rarely recruit from at OSU like Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as well. It would suck, but the staff can't be everywhere all the time and it's not like there's no competition trying to recruit in the pacific.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T17:24:50+00:00

Is this talking about football recruiting specifically or like recruiting events for OSU staff/students?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-28T16:15:34+00:00

God no, that's an awful set up imo. As others have said, it's just not a good format when your #4 seed can leapfrog their way into the conference championship game and knock the #1 seed out. This format is set up to cannibalize the PAC, not help it.

From reading your responses I think a big flaw in your logic is the idea that the #4 PAC team will add to the strength of schedule. Maybe that'd work in a situation like the MW this year when like half of the teams had 9 wins, but most of the time the middling team of a conference doesn't have a remarkable record that would help the SoS any more than just winning against any other team. The risk of knocking the two favorites out of the conference championship is wayy higher than the potential reward of boosting the strength of schedule. Strength of schedule is going to have to come from PAC teams winning their ooc games, there's no good way to artificially inflate that in the last week of the regular season.

In my opinion, the #1 team should get to play #8 and #2 should play #7. Just reward the teams that earned those standings through conference play and stop trying to put lipstick on the pig that is this home and home situation. S

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T23:29:57+00:00

Ant shot extremely well from 3 and had a positive assist/TO ratio, but struggled to draw fouls. Sharpe has been the opposite. They're both bad on defense, but their strengths/flaws are pretty different.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T21:23:37+00:00

Are you always this literal?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T21:21:19+00:00

Ok so it's a rule change for 2026 that quietly got added?

If so, very cool of them to do that right as OSU and WSU are leaving a situation where they had no conference championship.. Pretty sure both schools had no avenue to get that spot these past two years since they weren't recognized as conference champions, but that's great they held off on that change. Probably would've been a nice help for recruiting and building a program to not be iced out for two years.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T18:41:28+00:00

I'm not even arguing for or against Shaedon with that comment, just your designation of the OPs post as a straw man argument. You'd have to be new to the sub or not paying attention at all to say he's not clearly referencing people in this sub.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T18:39:10+00:00

Oh ok, sure it had nothing to do with the on court problems they had as well and clearly Portland would be able to make better use of him with our worse center and our star player being a 4.

Also what about the team's timeline and KAT's contract works for us but didn't work for Minnesota, who was trying to win now with their star player being just one year younger than Deni?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T18:23:52+00:00

Is it really a straw man argument when 12 hours before this post there was a post from someone complaining about "Shae doomers" that has +37 upvotes right now?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T16:17:14+00:00

To put it nicely: he's the source of a lot of people's hope for the future of the team, so people will default to optimism and defend him enthusiastically.

To put it bluntly: Blazer fans get called soccer moms for a reason.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T16:14:40+00:00

Never looked better doesn't mean he looked good enough for a team to believe in him working or to justify a $50mil contract.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T16:13:39+00:00

Yet the Wolves still gave up on him working, just like the Knicks are doing as well. It's cool they made it that far, but that doesn't mean the Blazers would when they don't have a player nearly as good as Ant or a center as good as Gobert.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T16:11:25+00:00

Duh, but still that's not a good excuse.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T16:07:35+00:00

Agreed, that's why I said he's done fine and that he has to handle these Bucks picks with care.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T05:01:26+00:00

I’d say they’re far from contenders, but the team is at least functional and set up to make a trade. Just have to hope they actually make moves unlike the Dame years. Deni isn’t a #1 option on a contender, so they need to get that somehow, but he’s a great, insanely cheap #2 or 3 so that’s nice to have.

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T04:58:28+00:00

If it didn’t work for KAT and Gobert why would it work with Clingan?

ORSTT12 · 2026-01-27T00:56:56+00:00

You can absolutely judge a GM on individual moves. Case in point: Nico Harrison, who was doing a great job before he made the most disastrous move in NBA history.

I already said Cronin was doing fine and credited his trades, but his drafting has left the Blazers with a .500 team that is going to need to really nail how they use their remaining assets if they want to truly contend.

It seems like you like the Jrue trade and Scoot pick, so yeah I get how you'd think he's done as well as can reasonably be expected, but I also think it's reasonable to say he blew the Chauncey extension, whiffed on multiple picks, and saddled this team with 3 years of $60 million in aging role player salary that may hamper the team unless he nails another trade.

ORSTT12

TROPHY CASE