End of an Era: Seahawks' Carroll 'Disappointed' in College Football
After last year's surprising playoff berth and this season's optimistic outlook, Pete Carroll is convinced he's building something special in Seattle. He only hopes it mirrors the success he enjoyed at his previous job.
Before Carroll took over the Seahawks in 2010, he constructed a dynasty down the Pacific coastline. At the University of Southern California, Carroll's Trojans won back-to-back national championships in 2003-04 and came within a heroic performance by Texas' Vince Young of a rare Three-"Pete" in 2005.
These days the 71-year-old Carroll is consumed by the NFL. But he's also saddened by what has happened to the conference his team once ruled. He became one of the most successful coaches in college football history in the Pac 10. Then the conference grew to the Pac-12. But now?
It's in ruins, with the latest re-shuffling leaving the premier conference on the west coast with only Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State. Fleeing last week were Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Carroll's old USC and UCLA started the crumbling by deciding to join the Big Ten.
Somewhere Bill Walton and his "conference of champions!" motto are crying. Even at Seahawks' training camp, Carroll can't avoid shedding a tear.
"I'm really disappointed," told reporters over the weekend. "I would think that there's a lot of people, a lot of fans that are disappointed, too."
The Pac-12 collapsed because of - surprise! - money. Conference commissioner George Kilavkoff was unable to secure a lucrative enough TV partner, so everyone (almost) bolted.
Added Carroll, "I know that it's a financial turn that they do and they've got to make their decisions and all, but there's something about the tradition of it that gets lost and I don't know where they recapture that, I don't know how they recapture the traditions that have been there so long."
While the Seahawks will continue their intra-division rivalries with the likes of the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, gone are traditional games such as the "Civil War" between Oregon-Oregon State and the "Apple Cup" between Washington and Washington State.
"It's not just our conference out here," Carroll said. "It's around the country too. I really don't understand. I'm pretty disappointed in college football right now."
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