The Pac-12 blew up… now technically the Pac-4…
… and if rumors are true, Stanford and Cal will be leaving for the ACC soon.
What a disappointment.
Why is the Pac-12 — and Stanford — operating from a position of weakness and not strength?
Since when did Stanford simply settle?
Why doesn’t Stanford lead the Pac-12 and REBUILD the league… into something new & different & AWESOME?
How about creating a POWER FOOTBALL CONFERENCE that also turns out bright technical students? The kind we want to root for coming out of college. The kind that Google and Apple and Amazon LOVE to recruit.
A power Ivy League.
Before you say, “well, Stanford isn’t exactly a sporting powerhouse,” think again. Not only has Stanford won its share of Rose Bowls (tied for third most wins)…
… but there is this little something called the Directors’ Cup that recognizes the institutions with the most success in collegiate athletics. Since its founding, Stanford has obliterated ALL NCAA Division 1 schools… winning 26 of the 29 cups awarded. (Is obliterated too strong? There are 363 Division 1 schools. So possibly not.)
Back to the task at hand: If you were going to create such an academic/football powerhouse conference, you couldn’t have two better schools than Stanford and Cal as foundational anchors.
And, Notre Dame could use a home, too. Wow… another great football school graduating great students.
We’re almost halfway there… all we have to do is find five more great schools with solid and aspiring football programs out of the 360 NCAA schools left…
… and then the new PAC-8 rides again… let’s call it the Power Academe Conference…
… keeps its old vibe… but with a definitively new purpose: To show the world you can have great sports AND great academics. Strive for the best of the best… or rather, the best AND the best.
So how to finance this new PAC-8?
Easy. Google.
Or Apple.
Or Amazon.
Each has an embarrassing amount of disposable cash…
… and each has their own TV NETWORK…
… the very two things that everyone seems to be chasing.
Did I say an embarrassing amount of disposable cash? Here is perspective: Disney, which owns ABC, which owns ESPN, has about $12 billion in the bank.
Google? $120 billion.
So I’m not exaggerating when I say eight teams x $50 million equals round-off error to these folks.
Why would any of these companies do this?
Hearts & Minds. Of the students. The ultimate societal influencers. It’s that simple. And that valuable.
The “network” crowd — ABC/ESPN, CBS, Fox, NBC, etc. — doesn’t care about that. All they care about is temporary eyeballs.
But tech companies… they care about something much more valuable: FUTURE CUSTOMERS and FUTURE EMPLOYEES.
Sure they’ll get an audience… and content… and these have value…
… but the real value — that has no value to the network crowd — is getting a student to use a search engine FOR LIFE… or an iPhone FOR LIFE… or even create new products that the world will use FOR LIFE.
Because here’s the big secret that these tech companies know: It takes a special kind of person to create world-changing products…
… like the kind Stanford and Cal graduate.
That, as the old TV commercial taught us, is priceless.
That’s why, utlimately, the network crowd can’t compete.
That’s why, ultimately, it’s totally worth a tech titan stepping in with a big swinging diploma.
That’s how Stanford negotiates from a position of strength. Hearts. Minds. The Future. Priceless.
Why, oh why, hasn’t someone called up ex-Stanford President John Hennessey — chairman of the board of Alphabet, Google’s parent — and have him broker this deal? Or maybe Apple’s Tim Cook, who is college football’s #1 fan? Or maybe both… and get them bidding.
Stanford has had a rough few years. But Stanford does not have to settle. Let’s create a conference IN OUR OWN IMAGE.
UPDATE #1:
Some have reasonably suggested that this could take a while to assemble. Fair point.
Then why not just start with the two teams… Stanford and Cal… a dependent independent tandem?
The tech titans might even like that better… because (1) Stanford and Cal are of particular importance to them, and (2) they’ll get to test out this whole “Power Academe” thing.
This would allow the budding PAC-2 time to be incredibly selective. Only the top academic/sports institutions need apply!
And I’ll add one more thing that only we folks in Silicon Valley think about: We’ll OWN the conference. Like a start-up company. Everybody take a moment and wrap your heads around that one. Chaos absolutely brings opportunity.
UPDATE #2:
On Sept 1st, 2023, Stanford and Cal… settled… for the ACC.
Obviously I don’t agree.
But I understand. They felt homeless. And they wanted to keep playing quality teams.
Fine For Now.
And they felt homeless.
Did I repeat myself again? I did. They shouldn’t have felt homeless. They’re Stanford University, one of the top schools in the entire freakin’ world… with the 3rd largest endowment in the world…
… created by their students that created this generation’s technical explosion and previously unimagined wealth.
So how will the ACC work out?
FFN.
At some point, though, Stanford will get tired of being treated like a perpetual pledge, especially if Troy Taylor turns out to be the second coming of Bill Walsh or (dare I say it) Jim Harbaugh.
And, at some point, all this is going to blow up again. Once we started paying amateur athletes to play… and then provided the means to bed-hop annually… well, instability is now the norm.
So I have no doubt we’ll get another chance.
To control our destiny.
To create something we can be proud of…
… FOR THE AGES.
If we’re smart, we’d start planning for this NOW.
Hearts. Minds. The Future. Priceless.
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