Go ahead, give Washington State the Rose Bowl. Let them prick their fingers all the way to Pasadena. They’ve earned it this season.
But it doesn’t matter. The Pacific-10 Conference doesn’t belong in the Palouse, or even in California, and surely not Arizona.
The real conference crown will be handed out Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
And it will be in the form of a fat paycheck.
Of course, the Ducks and Huskies of 2002 have played like anything but the Ducks and Huskies of the recent past, but the fight for the Northwest — and ultimately the entire conference — rests upon this game.
Saturday’s game will obviously have some implications for the teams’ seasons and their bowl eligibility. The bigger game, though, has the biggest implications. The game of power, which encompasses the donors, the recruits, the facilities, is what’s at stake here.
A win on the field Saturday will equal a win in the bank account, though neither program really needs more money.
The Ducks have Phil Knight, who UCLA head coach Bob Toledo earlier this season called the best owner in college football. Even after a fallout with the University more than two years ago (and the subsequent kiss-and-make-up story), Knight has been the donor for Oregon sports, including footing a large chunk of the bill for the Autzen Stadium expansion.
The Huskies, well, they also can get whatever they want. Their stockholders probably combine to Mr. Knight’s worth. After Oregon set the pace with the Moshofsky indoor practice facility, UW wasn’t about to be dawged, so they built their own indoor facility, which opened last year.
Not that everyone else is standing idly by. The Cougars built their own indoor facility, and the Beavers are planning an expansion of Reser Stadium.
But does anyone really believe the Cougs and Beavs can keep up?
Wazzu has a good team once every five years, and Oregon State scares up an upset every now and then, but the Ducks and Huskies have been and will be constants. They have the money, they have the facilities, they control the propaganda (as Rick Neuheisel pointed out).
Oregon and Washington just have it. They just need the win to have it all.
Which is why this game, the battle on the field, is more important than just this season’s conference standings or the December bowl placement.
It’s hard to fathom, but this one game will decide the next four or five years for these programs, mainly because of recruiting possibilities.
Rightfully so, Washington’s Neuheisel and Oregon’s Mike Bellotti have butted heads in the past over recruiting. Neuheisel charged that Bellotti was a dirty recruiter after two recruits backed out of Seattle and came to Eugene.
That’s only part of it.
On the field Saturday, Oregon’s defensive secondary — battered from getting picked on all season, and now coping with injuries to safety Keith Lewis and corner Aaron Gipson — has to counter the best passing game in the Pac-10. Cody Pickett to Reggie Williams has become an art in Seattle. Picket to Williams. Repeat. And again. And again.
Off the field, the Huskies have to cope with Oregon’s public relations buzz, which ranks atop the Pac-10, if not the country. That includes another billboard. And another. Anyone seen a poster in Seattle yet?
You have to admire the Cougars and Beavers of the world — the hard workers, the underrated overachievers — but you have to bow down to the real powers.
The ones with the money.