Pac-12 Is Dead, So Let's Revisit That One Time An Arizona Student Dressed Like A Ref, Blew A Play Dead And Ignited A Massive Brawl

As we all wake up today and battle demons and hangovers, let's all take a minute and reflect on the Pac-12.

It's dead. Gone. Just like that, it's over.

When the final whistle blew on Oregon-Washington Friday night, not only did Bo Nix's 15-year run in college football (probably) end, but so did the Pac-12.

For those who watched it, you can tell your kids and grandkids one day "about this one league called the Pac-12." It'll be a history book question. A Jeopardy! question all the nerds will certainly get wrong.

We'll watch old USC-UCLA tapes and think to ourselves, 'Man, I miss the Pac-12 after dark.' What did Andy Bernard once say?

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."

He's right. We took a bunch of dumps on that Pac-12 over the years, especially when the league was awful, but boy are we gonna miss it.

The internet -- lucky for us -- lives forever. This morning, several college football fans were on Elon's Twitter reminiscing about that beautiful conference, and one moment in particular went viral for all the right reasons.

When you tell your kids about something called the Pac-12 years from now, make sure you lead with this:

If you remember any Pac-12 moment, make it this one

Just perfection. Everything about this moment is what makes college football the greatest, most pure sports in the country.

No politics. No agendas. Just good, old fashioned shenanigans. This little moment took place way back in 2011. The fake ref? He goes by Jacen Lankow -- an Arizona alum who is a household name in Tucson.

From a nifty little site called Tucson.com, which chronicled the event in real time:

With four seconds left before halftime and the Wildcats leading 42-7, Lankow — a UA senior — ran onto the field dressed as a game official, whistled a play dead, yelled “ball, ball, ball,” attempted to grab the football from the umpire — and then bolted from midfield to the north end zone while simultaneously ripping his costume off to reveal a Speedo.

This was a Halloween prank from the then-senior. He bought a ref outfit from the costume store across the street. He counterfeited an all-access field pass using Microsoft Paint. 

Microsoft Paint!

To pull it off, Lankow walked towards the field right at the end of the first half, pulled out a fake flip-phone as he was walking by security, and said, 'Oh, I’ll come by and bring the Gatorade right now.’

Incredible. The rest was history, as you can see. As for the brawl, it had nothing to do with Lankow. Completely unrelated. Completely random. The Pac-12, baby.

Anyway, that's what the crooks at the NCAA (and ESPN!) just took from us. Moments like that. Idiots.

Thank you, Pac-12. We'll never, ever forget you.