Washington Huskies Parting The Dying Pac-12 Will Be Such Sweet Sorrow After CFP National Championship Game

HOUSTON - "This is The End," Jim Morrison of The Doors sang in a classic song from 1967.

He was singing about an ex-girlfriend, not the Pacific-12 Conference. But tonight is The End for the Pac-12 as we know it.

Charter member Washington in 1915 - when the league was called the Pacific Coast Conference - will try to give a frequent glitz and glamour league one final, classic Hollywood happy ending Monday night.

Washington coach Kalen DeBoer speaks during Pac-12 Media Day on July 29, 2022, at Novo Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jevone Moore via Getty Images)

The No. 2, wholesome Huskies (14-0) and their good guy coach Kalen DeBoer will not be wearing white on the field, rather purple and gold. But they will try to upset the No. 1, and villainous, Michigan Wolverines (14-0) with outlaw coach Jim Harbaugh and their multiple NCAA recruiting and spying investigations in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

Washington Coach Kalen DeBoer Carries Final Pac-12 Flag

It's not at High Noon, rather 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.

"There's certainly a piece of that where you're sensitive to it, and it's very unfortunate," DeBoer said Saturday of the Pac-12 quaking from a dozen teams to just two over the last two summers. "We need to make sure we never forget those great moments."

The earthquakes started in the summer of 2022 when charter members USC and UCLA announced they would be leaving for the Big Ten in 2024. Then last July, Colorado said goodbye for the Big 12 in 2024. In August, Oregon and Washington announced their departures to the Big Ten. Then Arizona, Arizona State and Utah abandoned ship for the Big 12. And by Labor Day, Stanford and California switched oceans to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

And then there were two with Oregon State and Washington State remaining as the Pac-12 for 2024. There are likely plans to merge with the Mountain West as a new and not improved Pac-12 by 2025 or '26.

At least the real Pac-12 is finishing in powerful fashion. In 2022, USC quarterback Caleb Williams won the Heisman Trophy, and the league finished with five teams in the final regular season CFP rankings - No. 10 USC, No. 12 Washington, No. 14 Oregon State and No. 18 UCLA.

Pac-12 Conference Finishing Strong With Huskies In CFP Title

The Pac-12 put the most teams in a single ranking in conference history in 2023 with eight in the Associated Press poll early in the season. USC was No. 5 with 8 Washington, 12 Utah, 13 Oregon, 16 Oregon State, 18 Colorado, 23 Washington State and 24 UCLA. The only other conference to have more than eight in the A.P. poll was the SEC with 10 in 2015. And Washington and Oregon quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix, formerly of the SEC's Auburn, finished No. 2 and 3 in the Heisman race.

Known as a no-defense league and particularly criticized for that by SEC homers, the Pac-12 placed three teams in the top 25 in total defense in 2023 with UCLA at 10, Utah at 13 and Oregon at 22. Oregon. Interestingly, the SEC only had three with Georgia at 9, Alabama at 18 and Texas A&M at 19. And the Pac-12's top two averaged out at No. 11 to No. 13 for the almighty SEC.

"Two of the Pac-12's greatest seasons were the last two years," Washington senior defensive end Bralen Trice said Saturday. "And it's confusing to me that we're going to be dispersing the Pac-12. Maybe, one day it'll make a comeback somehow, some way. But I look forward to seeing where everybody goes in the future with all these great teams in the Pac-12."

It is confusing that such a great league with such a rich history suddenly disappeared. In essence, Pac-12 leadership under commissioner George Kliavkoff got too greedy with the television deal. And former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott did not spend money wisely.

"It's definitely sad that it's breaking apart," Trice said. "I don't want to see it go. I wish I was able to leave my legacy, and come back and watch Pac-12 games, and see the conference thrive as it should. I loved being a part of it. I love the Pac-12. I love the people involved and the fans."

Ironically, Washington will be playing tonight what in only recent years would have been a classic Rose Bowl between Pac-12 and Big Ten undefeated powerhouses. But the Rose Bowl this season featured Big Ten Michigan beating SEC Alabama in the CFP semifinal to get to this game, while Washington beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl to advance.

Washington Huskies Moving To Michigan Wolverines' League

Next season, Washington will host Michigan in a Big Ten game on Oct. 5 and travel to Penn State in that league on Nov. 9. Driving from Seattle to State College? That will be 2,600 miles and 38 hours, or a seven-hour flight. Travel will change drastically for those who covered the conference formally known as the Pac-12.

"We got to go to San Francisco every year, because it was either Stanford or Cal," Kim Grinolds, who has covered Washington at Dawgman.com for decades out of Seattle, said Sunday. "We would go to Arizona every year, either to Tucson or Phoenix. So, I won't be spending as much on sun screen and playing golf in the fall."

When Ted Miller left his Auburn beat at the Mobile (Alabama) Press Register in 1999 to cover Washington for the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, he wasn't leaving for a job, rather an adventure of travel. He went from Starkville and Fayetteville and Baton Rouge to Los Angeles and San Francisco and Phoenix, to name a few.

"Eugene, Oregon, was awesome, too," Miller said over the phone from Phoenix, where he moved from Seattle in 2008 to cover the Pac-12 for ESPN. "It's a conference of major cities. I really loved going to Georgia games in Athens when I was in the SEC or to New Orleans before LSU games in the SEC, but there's nothing like the travel in the Pac-12."

The Pac-12 title game between USC (right) and Utah on Dec. 2, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Getty Images)

Miller also covered great football in the Pac-12 until 2017 when ESPN made a huge mistake amid massive layoffs by letting go of clearly one of its best writers. That just after signing Miller to a new contract.

Maybe the Pac-12 wasn't as great as the SEC most of those years, but the pass offenses so many SEC programs use now started in the Pac-12.

"USC when Pete Carroll was the coach (2001-09) was as good or better than any SEC team," Miller said. "There's no question. It's really sad the league is ending, because college football at its heart is a regional sport."

Washington and other former Pac-12 members will still play old Pac-12 schools for a while. The Huskies will play some traditional Pac-12 opponents this season such as Washington State on Sept. 14, USC on Nov. 2, UCLA on Nov. 16 and Oregon on Nov. 30.

But it won't be the same. Kalen DeBoer got that feeling as his last Pac-12 season neared its end in 2023.

"There were a couple of times when we're getting ready for a game in the Pac-12, where our staff looked back on it realizing what had happened in the years past and how awesome it was for our alumni and our fan bases," he said. "Only having been in the Pac-12 for two years, I still have had a good scope of it for more than that, being on the West Coast (at other jobs)."

College Football Playoff National Title Pac-12's Last Hurrah

DeBoer and the Huskies will be carrying the flag of the real Pac-12 for the last time.

"I know we're proud of where we came from and of the conference we represent and everything that has led to us having our success this year," he said.

And in the end, Washington could go out as the Pac-12's first and last national champion of the College Football Playoff era. Oregon lost the national title to Ohio State in the inaugural CFP season in 2014-15. USC is the last Pac-12 national champion with back-to-back titles in the 2003 and '04 seasons.

"It would be great if Washington wins it in the last year," Miller said. "But in the end, it will still be very sad because of what the league could have become or remained as. It's still very depressing to me."