In the past few weeks Pac 12 football has added some high profile coaches to the conference. Mike leach takes over at Washington St., Rich Rodriguez is at the helm at Arizona, and Jim Mora Jr. has been speculated to take the job at UCLA or Arizona St. All three new coaches were unceremoniously fired from their previous job and they all have Stonehenge size chips on their shoulders. Pac 12 football is about to get real interesting.
Oregon and USC have already established themselves as perennial top 10 teams and Stanford has only lost 2 games in the last 2 seasons. Washington is on the rise and California is just a few pieces away from becoming a factor week in and week out. With Leach, Rodriguez, and a possible Mora Jr. on the recruiting trail the competition for top flight players will become more intense.
In the next 5 years two things are certain. The Pac 12 will establish itself as the 2nd best football conference behind the SEC and several of the Pac 12 schools will spend some time on probation. There is no way to avoid sanctions in a conference with 6 potential top 25 teams. Leach and Rodriguez will do everything in their power to turn their programs around quickly putting added pressure on the other schools to keep pace. College football is already a dirty game, but it's about to get real grimy on the west coast.
Even with all the conferences realigning themselves like a big game of musical chairs the Pac 12 will rise to national prominence. Success does come with a price however so all the publicity won't be positive. There will be more stories about fights, DUI's, drugs, and improper benefits, but there will also be more BCS games in the future as well. At any rate the Pac 12 has added excitement and enthusiasm with the new hires. Can't wait to see it.
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