While it may seem insane to complain about having a “Power 5” designation, I put forth that the Pac12 is holding back SC in the worst ways. Specifically:
- Officiating - how over-officiated our games are handicaps our teams when playing in games with refs from other conferences. We aren’t used to being able to play physically without fear of the zebras. That makes us “soft”
- Soft games make soft competition and it shows. Our team is rarely prepared to play OOC well because we get no challenge in conference. The team plays just well enough to beat the teams in conference which occasionally comes back to bite you when a fluke call / turnover / Madden-mode performance from an opponent knocks them off. There is no “killer instinct” to be the best. Just need enough to win, not be great.
- parity is NOT important... competition is all that matters. I don’t want to skew political here but there is this egalitarian culture more prevalent on the West Coast and I think it permeates the conference in football. It’s viewed as a negative to have the “haves” and “have nots” so equality is desired over competitive advantage. This needs to be shaken up or I am going to start agreeing with the “go independent” movement.
- the education supremacy push is noble, but can’t be the only goal. It’s all good and great building up the endowment and increasing the school’s profile, but success on the field is also a giant revenue generator and marketing tool. Since the Pac12 contract disadvantaged us to the rest of the country, SC admins are going to have to be willing to open the checkbook a bit more to compete until a better arrangement can be worked out.
- Officiating - how over-officiated our games are handicaps our teams when playing in games with refs from other conferences. We aren’t used to being able to play physically without fear of the zebras. That makes us “soft”
- Soft games make soft competition and it shows. Our team is rarely prepared to play OOC well because we get no challenge in conference. The team plays just well enough to beat the teams in conference which occasionally comes back to bite you when a fluke call / turnover / Madden-mode performance from an opponent knocks them off. There is no “killer instinct” to be the best. Just need enough to win, not be great.
- parity is NOT important... competition is all that matters. I don’t want to skew political here but there is this egalitarian culture more prevalent on the West Coast and I think it permeates the conference in football. It’s viewed as a negative to have the “haves” and “have nots” so equality is desired over competitive advantage. This needs to be shaken up or I am going to start agreeing with the “go independent” movement.
- the education supremacy push is noble, but can’t be the only goal. It’s all good and great building up the endowment and increasing the school’s profile, but success on the field is also a giant revenue generator and marketing tool. Since the Pac12 contract disadvantaged us to the rest of the country, SC admins are going to have to be willing to open the checkbook a bit more to compete until a better arrangement can be worked out.
