“It’s a travesty, flat out it’s a travesty.”
These are the words of Al Griswold, an Oregon State University and Beaver Football alumni after University of Washington and University of Oregon announced plans to leave the PAC-12 conference, joining other major universities in the conference to move within the Big-10 and Big-12.
Griswold says that all of these school’s move away from the PAC-12 conference are money based.
These decisions ignore both respect for over a hundred years of traditions and the alumni that have come before, Griswold said.
“No one is caring about tradition, no one is caring about alumni, everyone is caring about funding, money,” Griswold said. “We are leaving tradition behind, we are leaving the wellbeing and the focus on academics and focusing on funding.”
According to Griswold, the reputation and pride of a university is due in part to the conference and division of the institution.
As now eight universities have announced plans to leave Griswold holds concern for the reputation and relevance of the entire conference and the schools that remain in it.
“How do we remain relevant as an entire athletic department funding wise?” Griswold said. “We are going to go where the competition is relevant and that is we are going to go to the Big-12, we are going to go to the Southeastern Conference we are going to go to the Atlantic Coast Conference and forget about tradition and forget about how far the travels it requires.”
OSU Cheerleader Parker Eggiman shares this opinion with Griswold, that the move prioritizes funding over athlete wellbeing and meaningful traditions.
“While some athletic programs will do just fine traveling across the country for games, the overwhelming majority will suffer academically trying to compete in the sports they love,” Eggiman said.
Eggiman said in his experience the cheer team had up to five games in a week—not including practice times—which made balancing being a student difficult.
“It’s already hard enough,” Eggiman said.
Josh Green, a punter on the OSU football team, also holds concerns of the difficulty across-country travel will cause for athletes.
“I think the fans lose and absolutely the athletes lose,” Green said. “Not once has anyone asked what the athletes want in the realignment.”
OSU’s President Jayathi Murthy released a statement after the announcement of UW and UO’s plans to leave.
“We believe the preservation of the PAC-12 is in the best interest of all member universities, student-athletes and fans,” Murthy said in the email statement.
Green believes OSU was trying to keep the conference together to the benefit of the athletes, fans, coaches and anyone involved.
Eggiman hopes OSU and the remaining universities within the PAC-12 will be able to make the best of what has happened and work to stay relevant.
“These are all great schools with great athletic and academic programs and it’d be a shame to see them get left behind in this conference realignment,” Eggiman said.
As for the tradition of rivalry games between regional universities such as the OSU vs. UO annual football game, Griswold thinks the tradition will continue. However, tradition will hold a different tone as it would be an out-of-conference match-up.
Neither university has released any information about if the annual game would continue, but for Eggiman, these rivalry games are what make college athletics special.
“What hurts most is that Oregon State became an afterthought, especially after the amazing season that Beaver Football had last year,” Eggiman said.
Eggiman feels that the realignment will only further motivate the Beavers’ mentality moving forward.
As for the impact these decisions carry for the entirety of West Coast universities, Green is uncertain about the future.
“We truly are in uncharted waters,” Green said.
He is, however, hopeful OSU will be able to find its way.
“As fans, the best thing that we can do is show our support for Beaver Nation in all athletic programs,” Eggiman said. “Let the networks and other conferences know that Beaver Nation is here and strong, and we’re not going anywhere, regardless of what happens in the future.”
