Photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Anyone who enjoys listening to the eccentric Bill Walton while watching Pac-12 basketball is reminded of this fact multiple times during the broadcast. According to their website, the current tally is 553. Nicknamed “The Conference of Champions”, the Pac-12 has won more national championships across team sports than any other conference in history.

Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, Pacific-10, and finally in 2011, the Pac-12 when Colorado and Utah joined. The elite conference was formed in 1959, with its monikers changing as it grew. Defense was often optional as the Cals, Stanfords, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington schools marched up and down the field at will, leading to frantic finishes and weekly upsets. There went my cheap tickets!įor me, Pac-10 football was a fun product to watch Saturday evenings long after the Eastern schools had completed their prime-time games. As a long-suffering Rutgers fan, I quickly embraced USC football and UCLA basketball and was even disappointed when my niece chose the surfing enclave of UC Santa Barbara over staying local and attending UCLA.

This made for a surreal experience in Burbank, where those of us that stayed felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Los Angeles studio towns empty out during the holidays, with transplants heading to all parts of the US to celebrate Turkey Day with family and friends. One of my favorite memories living in the San Fernando Valley town of Burbank, California in the 1990s was going to Ribs USA Thanksgiving weekend to watch the annual Trojans-Bruins rivalry game.

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