As you might have heard both because it’s summer and this is the only thing we have to talk about and because the rumor mill has once more coughed up on oyster, Arizona is in the news. This time for something good, likely because it’s about the school and not the state!
As began to be loudly rumored last week, the Big 12 is eyeballing new talent as the latest rounds of expansion/realignment take shape and the Pac 12 continues to dissolve in front of our very eyes. As the latest round of Pac 12 media rights negotiations (and what a concept THAT is) swirl, the rumor mill is curiously quiet on Arizona—in a nuclear solution, it appears that the dissolution of the Pac 12 would send Oregon and Washington to the Big 10 and Colorado to the Big 12, with Cal joining as well, and Arizona among everyone else finding a home amongst the rubble, mostly as the Big 12 expands (hypothetically).
Or Arizona could just hang out in the Pac 12 and become giants on a ghost ship cresting near but never quite hitting irrelevance.
This, to me, is insulting to Arizona and I don’t think those words have ever appeared in that order in print. Cal? Congrats on acquiring modern-day Vanderbilt. Colorado has been lost in the wilderness as an athletics department for a number of years now; to believe in them so much at this stage is to buy wholly into Deion Sanders as a Cult of Personality.
Arizona has a history in basketball, having won a title in the last 30 years (number of schools who can make that claim: 16). They count among alumni Rob Gronkowski and Khalil Tate, which should cement the football bonafides without further consideration. Arizona also has both Tucson (population over half-a-million) and is conveniently located near Saguaro National Park, which I imagine is a great place to take your favored hallucinogen. After using this to channel Channing Frye, you too will anticipate the greatness of Arizona in the [YOUR CONFERENCE HERE].