Bowl Games 2023-24

The Pac-12 had eight teams play in bowl games which must be a record number. (I have not done the research to verify) 

It's easy to group them into two camps: the pre-New Years and then the 2024 games. The six who played before New Years all had matchups against higher-ranked teams so mostly wearing white. (USC was lower ranked but wore red since—I think—the Holiday bowl alternates home teams, and Oregon was away last year) The results were mixed with the LA schools and Arizona winning and the oither three looking pretty weak.

Jan 1 provided a much better result for the top two teams in the Pac: Oregon and Washington. Both winning and looking good and colorful doing it! 

In the "natty" (Thanks Oregon's Cliff Harris for the term) #2 UW was the road team by one ranking point to Michigan #1, so wore all white to the Wolverines totally all blue.

Pac 12 Championship Game: Dec. 1, 2023

The LAST Pac-12 Championship Game, and the last Pac-8/10/12 game ever? 

If so, it was a doozy—arguably one of the most consequential conference games in living memory:  #3 vs. #5; winner Washington will most likely end up in the last 4-team playoff; and both QB will be invited to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Not to mention these two teams jet off to be instant heavyweights in the new Big-10 next season.

Oregon's  green-white-white was the standard road uniform during the early 2000s, but relatively uncommon since. Washington went mono-purple.

Week 13: November 24-25, 2023

The second half of Rivalry Week and the last regular season Pac-12 games ever! My last week tracking regular season Pac 12! I'm not sure what this blog becomes come January 2024?

Stanford wore their first-ever cardinal helmet with white script logo vs. Notre Dame. WSU also pulled out its script logo on their helmet for the Apple Cup. The Civil War was the only color-on-color matchup this weekend. Colorado pulled out its shiny road whites and Utah went with its almost balckout set.

Week 12: November 18, 2023

The California schools played their rivals this weekend. UCLA-USC was color on color as is tradition of late. Cal wore its kinda-sorta throwback Roth C logo helmet with normal road combo. IMHO, Rivalry Week should be color-on-color in most PAC-12 matchups. and Cal-Stanford has a good color combo so it's a shame Cal went for white jerseys. 

Arizona wore its annual military appreciation uniform with gray camo numbers and shoulder panels and played like the #2-3 team in the Pac-12! ASU also went for military appreciation, but much more subtle with camo Pat Tillman logo and stripe on the helmet, in looking like the bottom of the Pac.

In the final Pac-12 games in OSU's Reser Stadium and WSU's Martin Stadium, both teams went dark and brooding. Washington State—in a winning battle for the bottom of the Pac— vs. Colorado opted for all-anthracite gray with special WAZZU wordmark helmet. Colorado went mono-white. Oregon State—in a HUGE top-10 game—vs. Washignton wore all black.

Week 11: November 11, 2023

Being Veterans' Day, it is surprising that more teams did not display military pride or flags as they have in the past. Colorado inserted a flag into their logo and wore all gray and black. Oregon State inserted gray camo into their numbers and beaver logo. Arizona teased a military look early in the season but are saving it for next week's home game. Utah went with their well-worn throwback uniforms for the 3rd time this season.

Week 10: November 4, 2023

 

Week 9: October 28, 2023

All 12 teams were back in action. You know it's the Saturday before Halloween by the increase in black and other "scary" hijinks and a few "costumes." 

ASU had teased a black & glow-in-the-dark "Ghost Story" uniform earlier in the season, but this weekend's later start and Halloween, make it more appropriate.

Oregon, did all the black it could for being a road team with its rather drab black helmets and black pants.

Even Stanford got into the act, with their second BFBS set of the season, but this time with a "twist" of e white helemt with black logo and red chrome stripe. Oh Cardinal, you are so daring! 

Across the Bay, Cal also threw in a "twist" by  kinda-sorta pulling out its now-annual Joe Roth throwback— It mixed old with new by pairing the Roth-style C lozenge logo and stripe on the helmet, with its normal navy jersey and gold pants. But the twist is that it used a current helmet that has the modern brighter yellow and darker blue instead of the cheerier Roth blue/gold.

Utah brought out a new hand-painted helmet with a "MUSS"  Mighty Utah Student Section theme. 

UCLA—also riding the throwback bandwagon during Homecoming honored its 1954 national championship team (why in 2023 and not 2024??) with very plain powder blue jerseys, and plain gold helmets and pants. All the shades seem to be 25% less saturated than the current blue and gold. Of note is that number font is back to UCLA's serif font which they have used some sort of font every few years.

Colorado—in LaLa land wore a classy black helmet and mono white with shiny gold details. Looked quite nice with UCLA's classy

Week 8: October 21, 2023

Four teams off this week, but some good uniforms nevertheless! Three specials and three "stormtroopers."

It just so happens that the top 3 teams in the standings (UO, UW, USC) are home and the visitors (WSU, SU, UU) are coming to play in all white! Top that off with Washington's "Husky Royalty" all-purple with chrome-purple helmet and shiny gold accents. And Oregon wearing their 1994/2014 throwbacks (click for my dedicated post on those) and Utah wearing its well-worn throwbacks.

Week 7: October 14, 2023

The entire Pac-12 North was mono color! Ducks broke out the eggshell again and OSU wore retro Benny Beaver helmets and Utah wore the native american inspired pattern U.

Week 6: October 7, 2023

Four teams off this week and the rest all pretty ordinary. Colorado appears to have made the gold on their helmet shinier and the black glossier.

Week 5: September 30, 2023

The season is clicking along and the team byes are starting to hit, with UCLA and WSU off. 

Oregon State went full-pumpkin mono-orange with its friday home game vs. Utah who went black/white/black, so the whole matchup felt very Beaver-centric. Stanford also went unusual mono black, which negated a Christmasy-looking game vs Oregon. Arizona went mono red, and Colorado went mono gray. Silver is one of their school colors, so Colorado is the only team in the Pac-12 who can go gray without being "gray for gray sake" and their gray is a warm goldy gray.

Week 4: September 23, 2023

WSU went all dark gray and white—a curious choice against a team that wears a lot of black, so the "Pac-2 Bowl" was a mostly a grayscale affair with alternating tones. Utah went with their annual throwbacks, while ASU went Maroon Monsoon with the color shifting maroon helmet..

Week 3: September 16, 2023

 

Week 2: September 9, 2023

After the Pac-12 went 13-0 in weeks 0 and 1, they had a great slate of games against some juicy non-conference foes. Utah, Oregon, Arizona, UCLA and Stanford all were on the road. 

Colorado's look was slightly tweaked this week with a black and white look that downplayed gold. Arizona State went "blackout" with the sweatpant-textured charcoal gray paired with burgundy helmet. Oregon brought back chrome for the first time in several years. Arizona went mono blue on the road against a mono white Miss. State.

Week 1: August 31–Sept 3, 2023

Week 0 and 1 kicked off the last season of the Pac-12, right as news that Oregon State and Washington State are the only teams left in the conference next season after Cal and Stanford are moving to the ACC! But the interesting news is that none of the 12 teams made major changes to their sets. Yes a few subtle tweaks, but no new fonts or colors or major edits to shapes.

USC was the only team to play in week 0, but they wore the same home uniform in week 1.  

Utah went full red-out against Florida, while ASU went with  mostly traditional gold/maroon/gold look with the subtle flag design moved to the flanks. Oregon debuted a new black and carbon fiber helmet on top of their mono yellow look. Stanford wore red on the road, while WSU was the exact opposite on the road.

Arizona made some very subtle changes after changing to Nike: the sleeve caps added a second red stripe and the A logo returned to the jersey. Washington also made subtle changes: the numbers lost theor gold stroke and the Addidas logo got simplified.

But the "darling" of the Pac-12 this week is Colorado. Buffs, led by the never-publicity-adverse "Prime" not only pulled off a road upset of TCU, when all the pundits said they would finish 11th in the Pac-12, they did it with some aded glitz! For the first time I can remember, the jersey number are shiny gold instead of black and the Colorado chest wordmark got enlarged and shined up. Looks great on the wall white uniforms!

Schedule grid

USC has started play already with their "week 0" victory over San Jose State, but the rest of the Pac gets going this coming weekend. Here is a nice concise grid for the season from the Pac12.

The End of the Pac- (fill in the blank #)

Many people are saying that Aug. 4, 2023 is the day that the Pac-12 died. 

I guess if you are being pendantic, you would say June 30, 2022 was the day the "12" died when USC and UCLA announced leaving for the Big-10. But then Colorado decamped for the Big 12 in July of 2023, and today Oregon and Washington made it official about their move to the Big-10 (18 teams). 

So "today" it's the "Pac-7" but by tomorrow it may only be Cal, Stanford, OSU and WSU after the Four Corner schools go to Big-12? 

(Edit: Yes, the rest of the Mountain schools left for the Big 12  later on August 4, 2023 and on September 1, Cal and Stanford left for the ACC, leaving only OSU and WSU)

So what does that mean to this website? and the teams that it tracks in 2024? A lot will happen in the next 12 months but it probably means that the Pac will not really exist in Sept 2024? Does that mean that I will be tracking Mountain West Teams? Or helping track Big-10 teams? Not sure!

My personal opinion—as a Oregon alum, and 30-year Duck and Pac fan— is that the Pac-12 was a great conference and College Football is better off with the more-geographical conferences that put tradition and history and culture first. I get that money matters, and Oregon has been lucky to have plenty of money and success lately, but the losers are the Beavers, Cougars and to some extent the Bears and Cardinal. 

Looking forward to playing some of the Big-10 teams but hoping to keep the Civil War Game and some other west coast games. Maybe at least now our 3-4 "out of conference" games will be against Cal, OSU and WSU rather than PSU and Hawaii?