[AlbanyCardinal]

I'm still very curious to see what football looks like under a new coach, irrespective of the conference shakeup. The past few years I stopped watching football altogether, so this is a change for me. So far so good. I'd say it's the inverse with MBB. I can't stand watching Haase-coached basketball. It's absolutely maddening. I'm of course excited for ACC hoops, but until there's change at the top or a sea change in how he coaches, I'll be safely removed from the fray (for the sake of my blood pressure).

I've been thinking about this.  How does knowing that this is the last year of the Pac 12 alter your enthusiasm for the various sports this year?

It is complicated with football, since I think most everyone had sharply reduced expectations anyway.  But what about sports where we are expected to do well?

In WBB, for example, winning the conference has been a major challenge the last few years, with Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, Utah etc. putting up some major obstacles.  While the main goal for Stanford WBB has always been the Final Four and another shot at a natty, as the quality of WBB in the Pac 12 increased I think we all started to care about winning the conference as a second significant goal. 

This year, for example, we might not even be the favored team to win the conference, given that Utah gets everyone back.  And UCLA, bolstered by Betts, will be even stronger this year after defeating us last year.  So winning the conference will not be easy and doing so would seemingly be a major accomplishment.  It should, on paper, be a real dogfight.

But now I wonder how much anyone will care who wins the final title of a moribund conference?  Will attention and interest instead start to shift to our future conference?  Will we be more interested in how Notre Dame and Duke are doing this year than UCLA or poor Oregon State? 

One final WBB thought.  This may be the last year we ever play Washington State.  It is hard to imagine scheduling an out-of-conference trip to Pullman when our travel situation will be abhorrent in the ACC.   Currently we are 72-0 against them--going back about 40 years-- the most impressive streak in college basketball history.  So there is something to cheer for--finishing up at 74-0.

[AlbanyCardinal]

I'm still very curious to see what football looks like under a new coach, irrespective of the conference shakeup. The past few years I stopped watching football altogether, so this is a change for me. So far so good. I'd say it's the inverse with MBB. I can't stand watching Haase-coached basketball. It's absolutely maddening. I'm of course excited for ACC hoops, but until there's change at the top or a sea change in how he coaches, I'll be safely removed from the fray (for the sake of my blood pressure).

I've been thinking about this.  How does knowing that this is the last year of the Pac 12 alter your enthusiasm for the various sports this year?

It is complicated with football, since I think most everyone had sharply reduced expectations anyway.  But what about sports where we are expected to do well?

In WBB, for example, winning the conference has been a major challenge the last few years, with Oregon, Arizona, UCLA, Utah etc. putting up some major obstacles.  While the main goal for Stanford WBB has always been the Final Four and another shot at a natty, as the quality of WBB in the Pac 12 increased I think we all started to care about winning the conference as a second significant goal. 

This year, for example, we might not even be the favored team to win the conference, given that Utah gets everyone back.  And UCLA, bolstered by Betts, will be even stronger this year after defeating us last year.  So winning the conference will not be easy and doing so would seemingly be a major accomplishment.  It should, on paper, be a real dogfight.

But now I wonder how much anyone will care who wins the final title of a moribund conference?  Will attention and interest instead start to shift to our future conference?  Will we be more interested in how Notre Dame and Duke are doing this year than UCLA or poor Oregon State? 

One final WBB thought.  This may be the last year we ever play Washington State.  It is hard to imagine scheduling an out-of-conference trip to Pullman when our travel situation will be abhorrent in the ACC.   Currently we are 72-0 against them--going back about 40 years-- the most impressive streak in college basketball history.  So there is something to cheer for--finishing up at 74-0.