Pac-12, ASU still playing from behind in college football’s 2020 landscape

Before college football was so rudely interrupted, Arizona State was in the fast lane.

Its program was gaining real momentum and elevation. The Sun Devils were recruiting at an elite level. Capitalizing on a profound down cycle at USC. Flourishing under Herm Edwards, a paternal figure perfectly suited for a new era of college football, a man who is more servant-leader than ruthless exploiter of young talent.

The pandemic halted all of that. The Pac-12 only made things worse.

The conference finally addressed its football problem on Thursday, taking the plunge, voting on a return to play on the weekend of Nov. 6-7.

Or one week later than necessary.

They will play a 7-game season that will likely earn zero consideration from the College Football Playoff selection committee, even with ASU’s Paola Boivin entrenched on the selection committee. Unless Oregon or Jayden Daniels runs the table and blows everyone away, nothing good will come of this. Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama and Oklahoma will be chosen to compete for a national championship. The obvious solution of an 8-team playoff and guaranteed conference participation will never cross anyone’s mind. This entire exercise will go down as a net loss for ASU.

Don’t get me wrong. More football is good. I deeply enjoy the Territorial Cup. And, locally, ASU president Dr. Michael Crow helped score a $14 million investment from the state of Arizona for its three major universities, providing “point-of-need” testing to all students.

That tells me ASU and the conference were very concerned with the appearance of overserving its football players at the expense of everyone else, and not treating its students the same. That would be a logical assumption if ASU suddenly offered rapid-result testing to its football players, allowing them access to university activities currently denied to others.

Crow is smart enough to know that kowtowing to short-term football money would cost the conference a fortune in the future, thereby strengthening the players’ demands for unionization, a share of the profits and a seat the bargaining table.

They most definitely don’t want that.

But unless the Pac-12 surprises everyone on the football field, the SEC, the Big Ten and the Big 12 will divvy up the postseason jackpot. And the Pac-12, a conference emasculated and exposed as the Big Ten’s wagging tail, will have a hard time living down their performance during the Pandemic of 2020.

Here’s when the bill comes due:

In most criminal cases, defense attorneys need only create reasonable doubt to save their clients. The same is effectively true of recruiting in college football and basketball. And there will be many questions raised by those seeking to steer West coast talent from ASU to elsewhere, to the Big 12 or SEC.

Questions like:

Why was the Pac-12 so late to the voting table, stuck with the low-ceiling of a 7-game season?

If the conference had “game-changing” technology on Sept. 3, why was there so much inertia? Why wasn’t anyone jumping on tables and screaming for football?

And really, son, do you want to give your precious college career to a conference that operates like this? Where fans don’t care if you play or not? Where even the head coaches were way too OK with no football in 2020?

And what about that gravy-sucking pig of a commissioner? Ewwwww.

The conference has been terribly damaged during this pandemic. Many of the wounds are self-inflicted, as usual. So celebrate the return of Pac-12 football, but don’t expect too much. Not now or at any point in the near future.

And that’s a shame for the sleeping giant in Tempe, the one that was finally out of bed and brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

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