Pac-12 Analyst Yogi Roth Will Miss the People But Expects the Pac-12 to Return

He says too many smart people are telling him more change is coming, and it could return us to a familiar place.

Yogi Roth /

Yogi Roth has spent the past 20 years — nearly half his life — affiliated with the Pac-12 Conference, first as young assistant football coach at USC, more recently as an analyst with the Pac-12 Network.

When he and I visited on Zoom last Tuesday, it was Roth’s final day with the Pac-12 Network, which will cease to exist as the conference itself breaks up.

“I appreciate the therapy session,” he joked.

I asked Roth to share his emotions as the more than century-old conference closes its doors. Cal and Stanford are headed to the ACC next fall, USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon will join the Big Ten, and Arizona, Arizona State, Colordo and Utah are Big 12 bound. Roth's response to the upheaval was poignant and a little surprising.

“I don’t feel a crashing anything. It feels like it’s been slow and you kind of watched it in slow motion and lived it,” he said. “All year long, our mantra was don’t miss a moment.”

Roth said the final season has been a time to reflect and appreciate the ride. He especially noted his association with elite-level play-by-play veteran Ted Robinson, whom he said “changed my life.”

“This guy, as a broadcaster, gave me a master’s degree,” Roth said. “As a father and as a husband, he gave me the book on how to be a parent in this profession and hopefully a reliable and loving husband. 

“That part hurts, not knowing I’m going to call a game with Ted.”

Roth went on to reference all the behind-the-scenes folks who made the broadcasts happen, along with other on-air talent, including Pac-12 studio host Ashley Adamson.

He said everyone’s approach all year was different than in the past. No one rushed out of a stadium to get back to the hotel or the airport.

“We called it the afterglow. We would connect and really lean into the relationships,” he said. “It was a beautiful year — it wasn’t a crash.”

Roth was 22 years old when he went to work at USC for coach Pete Carroll. Along the way he crossed paths with Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Justin Wilcox.

“We’ve all kind of grown up together,” he said. “That’s what I’ll miss the most. So many great moments, I’m just grateful.”

But that’s not his only emotion as he exits the Pac-12.

“Gutted . . . at times angry. It makes no sense,” he said. “I don’t understand how we didn’t keep this thing together, when you look at 43 (NFL) draft picks and you look at the season that was . . . it’s sickening in that regard.”

But he also doesn’t view this as necessarily the league’s final scene.

“I don’t think it’s over. I think we’re kind of rounding a big iceberg and something’s going to happen again.”

At some point, he believes, college football will get this figured out. One vision shared by a lot of folks is that the top schools, 70 or 75 of them, will  . break from the NCAA, create their own entity with new media rights deals, geographically sound conference alignments, revenue sharing with athletes and a postseason that will rival or exceed the popularity of March Madness. 

“I have a belief that that will happen,” Roth said. “I talked to too many powerful people over the course of spring football on very different campuses across the country that have said, `Yeah, this is a real thing.’ “

That potential return to what we have known for so long would restore one of the biggest aspects of the game that will be lost beginning next fall when Cal trades annual games against USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington for an ACC lineup that includes Florida State, Miami, Wake Forest and North Carolina State.

“It’ll be tradition, which college football is deeply rooted in, the pageantry that we love,” Roth said. “There’s not a lot of pageantry when Cal goes to Pitt.”