From The River To The Sea?

“No one can take pleasure from seeing bayonets in an American community or on a college campus, but the arrival of the (National) Guard with bayonets brought total de-escalation of hand-to-hand fighting and violence.” — California Governor Ronald Reagan on sending in both the California Highway Patrol and the National Guard to quell escalating rioting at UC Berkeley, May 15, 1969

“Today, our university held firm, enforcing our rules while protecting the constitutional right to free speech. Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable. Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our university will not be occupied.” — University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell, April 24, 2024

Wondering why the word Progressive became synonymous with Antisemitic?

Are some research university presidents finally standing-up and being counted, when it comes to actually defending the teaching of the best and brightest? How long has it taken for coordinated student campus occupiers to meet their match?

Did university leaders learn from the cashiering of former Harvard president Christine Gay and UPenn president Liz Magill, both guilty of not standing up against raging Antisemitism on their respective campuses.

Is there a growing societal response finally taking a stand against permissive counterculture? Do these peaceful occupation/riots help or hurt the campaign of former President Donald Trump?

Hearts and Minds

Almost DailyBrett grew up during the student riots against the Vietnam War. The conflict was not as simple and clear as the response to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

Vietnam was never adequately explained to the American public. The draft was literally pulling hundreds of thousands out of society and packing them off to Southeast Asia. The student protests questioned American foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some of these gatherings (e.g., most notably UC Berkeley) were completely out of control. California Governor Reagan deployed the National Guard. The peaceful protesters, sympathetic faculty and elite media didn’t approve, but the public was overwhelmingly supportive.

The same scenario is being played out for Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The decision to send in the National Guard is never easy, but it’s part of the job. The primary responsibility of government is to provide protection and to ensure safety for its citizens.

Remember the peaceful protesters four years ago? Will campuses likewise burn, if the adults in society don’t or won’t intercede?

Today’s campus riots … err protests from Columbia University on the east coast to your author’s undergraduate alma mater, USC, on the west coast — and many universities in between — concern the actions of a long-time ally beyond America’s borders, 10-time-zones away.

USC has now canceled its university graduation ceremony. Who won? How about student storm troopers, practicing horrific Antisemitism?

Students Supporting Hamas?

“College life today is a day spa, combined with a North Korean re-education camp. It’s a daycare center with a meal plan, except the toddlers can fire the adults. The fact that college presidents, who like to speak out about anything, couldn’t find their voice to condemn the worst attacks since the Holocaust says a lot about who really controls colleges.” — Bill Maher, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” host

Almost DailyBrett attending a football game last November was greeted by dozens of student agitators chanting “From the River to the Sea” as in from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Translated: Israel will cease to exist.

Aren’t the termination of Israel and by extension, America, the stated goals of terrorist Hamas (Hezbollah, Iran)? Didn’t they all start the conflagration last October?

Are these Antisemitic students familiar with the Teutonic compound noun, Sturmabteilung? These illiberal campus Braunhemden are knowingly or unknowingly calling for the extermination of Jews, and many of them just don’t understand the evil meaning behind these benign sounding words.

As a former tenure track professor of public relations, marketing, corporate communications and investor relations, Almost DailyBrett clearly comprehends the mission of Research 1 universities: Educate Z-Gens (born 1997 to 2012) and provide them with the skill sets and credentials to succeed in the marketplace and life.

If campuses become unsafe for particular students (e.g., Jewish) and the learning experience is severely diminished/curtailed because of narrow-minded political agendas, society must intercede to restore the beautiful purpose of our university environments.

Ronald Reagan was severely criticized back in the 1960s for sending in the National Guard. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is the target of media elites today.

Guess that goes with the job.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/04/25/free-speech-ut-austin-protest-greg-abbott-tweet-response-protests-contrast-2019-stance/73447192007/

https://www.foxnews.com/us/ut-austin-president-defends-shutting-down-anti-israel-protests-our-rules-matter-enforced

https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/us-university-students-do-not-understand-full-meaning-of-from-the-river-to-the-sea-chant-survey-reveals-bq5o3sz7

‘Writing About The Jews Again’?

Bi-Coastal Elites Abandon Israel

“Journalists” Telling Their Truth, Not The Truth

When Was It Past-Time For The National Guard?

Permissible Plagiarism? Acceptable Anti Semitism?

Kicking Elite Universities In The Endowment?

Bi-Coastal Elites Abandon Israel

Who Started It?

Do “Student” Athletes Need To Go To School?

“He’s (Texas QB Quinn Ewers) got to park where he’s supposed to park. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be parking on gameday.” — Texas Head Coach Steve Sarkisian, September 5, 2022

It’s really a summer bummer having your Aston Martin towed by University of Texas Parking and Transportation Services, especially when you’re making $1.9 million or presumably more in annual NIL contracts.

What’s a student athlete supposed to do?

Almost DailyBrett is still cursing having his own James Bond car towed by USC parking enforcement during his days as the football manager for the Men of Troy. Alas the bespoke vehicle — worthy of Sean Connery — did not include a cardinal and gold leather interior.

The above is more than a tiny fib. Yours truly did not have a car in college, let alone a multi-million-dollar Names Images and Likeness (NIL) deal. Class was required along with tests, papers, reading assignments and presentations.

Let’s back up: Texas’ starting quarterback with reportedly $1.9 million in NIL contracts, includes his burnt-orange leather interior Aston Martin. His backup Arch Manning is pulling down $3.7 million to sit on the bench.

His uncles are named, Peyton and Eli.

Wait! The two Tejas signal callers are collectively receiving $5.6 million to wear the burnt orange and white on Saturdays?

Will Arch eventually enter the transfer portal to secure playing time? How much will that cost? Maybe — just maybe — he’s overvalued and simply not that good. Heck, he may actually make more in college than the NFL, assuming he even has a pro football career.

Almost DailyBrett remembers not-so-fondly being the manager of the office co-ed softball game. We never won a game. It seemed that all of our opponents sported “ringers,” great players, who couldn’t find the men’s room, let alone accounting at the corporate headquarters.

Maybe university athletes should be regarded as “ringers.” Instead of playing in the NFL, they are pretending to be students at SEC schools in particular. They are paid big NIL bucks to represent the university for at least one year on the basketball court or three years on the football field.

Do ringers really need to go to class?

Why go to class, if you are set financially for life? Aren’t your credentials for employment, your TD/Interception ratio or three-pointer percentage? Who cares about grade-point average, while majoring in football or basketball? Your stats are your GPA.

Can you imagine Arch sitting in class with a professor having the audacity to call on him in front of all of the other students (e.g., Socratic Method). Perish the thought about Arch writing papers, taking fill-in the blank exams (sorry no multiple guess) and participating with mere mortal students on assigned team projects.

How pedestrian.

Is the NCAA going to enforce school attendance policies at university football factories? Lack of institutional control has already been lost with NIL contracts, player tampering, transfer portals and conference realignments, spurred by a manipulative evil sports network (Disney’s ESPN).

Is Almost DailyBrett favorable to permitting student athletes to drop the adjective preceding the noun, as in student modifying athlete? Having sweated out two degrees, your author believes strongly that college students should go to class and do the work.

Hook ’em Horns

What happens if the only assignment is beating Alabama on Saturday?

University-paid athletes — the ones with impounded Aston Martins, the ones pulling down seven figures annually (even to ride pine), the ones threatening to enter the transfer portal — are not students (okay maybe at Vanderbilt … but who cares about Vanderbilt football?).

Let’s be real: They’re ringers. To be more precise these university athletes are professionals. The campus football field or basketball court are exclusively for marketing their credentials to Dr. Pepper, Subway Sandwiches and AT&T.

What about the real students on campus? Where are their Aston Martins? Who is paying for their name, image and likeness? Heck, they run the risk of being suspended from school for non-performance.

Almost DailyBrett is saying that real student athletes should take full advantage of their scholarships and pursue a genuine degree from a bona fide university. The vast majority will not make it in the NFL or NBA. It would be more than a good idea for them to attain a college degree, and maybe even go to graduate school.

Having said all that, let’s acknowledge the obvious: We live in an age of student ringers. Some are already monetarily set for life. “College” is just a stepping stone. They don’t care about going to class. Why force them, if they are not student athletes?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34518846/texas-longhorns-qb-quinn-ewers-car-towed-debut

https://www.law.uchicago.edu/socratic-method

In The Name Of Social Justice

Are ESPN and Fox Sports Guilty of Racketeering?

Be True To Your School?

Why Are ‘Lily’ and ‘Flo’ So Annoying?

Burying The 109-Year-Still-Young Pac-10

When it comes to a beloved centenarian, your heart wants them to go on and on, but your intellect says it’s time to accept the inevitable.

For Almost DailyBrett last Saturday provided moments of joy and despair.

The Oregon Ducks beat UCLA, Arizona and Colorado on three consecutive nights to make it to an improbable berth in the NCAA Tournament. It was another of Dana Altman’s late-season masterpieces.

Hanging over the green and yellow confetti coming down from the Las Vegas hockey arena rafters was the brutal undeniable reality of the official burial after 109-years in business of the Pac-10, The Conference of Champions.

Yes, yes, there is still beisbol and track and field in the spring, but football and basketball are easily the main revenue sports. They’re done. The conference ist kaputt.

Your author acknowledges we the verdict was in, when USC and UCLA left for the Big 10 Conference in 2022.

Under the Kübler-Ross Model five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — some long-tenured Pac-10 fans are still in depression, others finally completed the journey to acceptance.

The final spade of dirt was shoveled Saturday on the casket of the once proud member of the Power-Five. The saddest part of this woeful tale is simply, it didn’t have to be this way. There were many sinners in this sad story. There were no saints to be found.

Leading the well-intentioned Road to Hell are the inattention of university presidents, the negligent mismanagement of former $5.3 million per annum commissioner Larry Scott, the greed of all things evil ESPN, conniving and tampering predatory conferences, and the selfishness of individual Pac-10 members.

This perfect storm of events led to the Pac-10 Wall falling without a shot being fired.

Picking Up The Pieces of the Pac-10?

As we dig through the rubble of a perfectly balanced conference — two desert schools, two from LaLaLand, two from Frisco, two from Oregon, two from Washington — there was a serendipity that came from natural rivalries and relatively easy road trips for teams, alumni, students and fans.

And then the university presidents hired Harvard-head Larry Scott in 2009.

Is Larry the source of all evil in this story? No.

He deserves the lion’s share of blame for the demise of a major conference, which drew its roots from four charter members — Oregon, California, Oregon State and Washington — meeting in a Portland hotel room to form the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915.

Over time the conference filled out to include Wazzu in 1917, Stanford in 1918, USC in 1922, UCLA in 1928 and finally Arizona and ASU in 1978. Life was good.

Scott decided to add barely contiguous Utah and Colorado in 2011. Worst of all was the establishment of Pac-12 Networks broadcast from nose bleed rental One Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco. The biggest issue was that virtually no one could watch (e.g., second largest in the nation, Los Angeles) the troubled network through the landscape of the Pac-12 Conference.

The problem persisted until the end. It was never solved. No one could put Humpty Pac-10 back together again.

Greed and literal stupidity prevented the conference presidents, athletic directors and Scott from accepting a rescue line for Pac-12 Networks from ESPN and other networks run by adults. From the start to the pulling the plug later this spring, the conference never learned, never changed. They wanted to control all of the revenues.

What revenues?

Almost DailyBrett from the vantage point of history can conclude the Pac-10 ended on June 30. 2022, when coveted USC and wing-man UCLA announced their inexplicable departure for the Big 10 conference.

There is little doubt that ESPN (e.g., Southeastern Conference) and to a lesser extent Fox Sports (e.g., Big Ten) were scheming and conniving to raid the best and brightest from weaker conferences (e.g., Larry Scott’s Pac-12).

One year later, Oregon and Washington joined the two Los Angeles schools in the Big Ten. Arizona, ASU, Utah and Colorado are on their way to the Big 12.

Inexplicably academic oriented Cal and Stanford are headed to the East Coast only Atlantic Coast Conference. Only Land Grant notables Oregon State and Washington State are the only survivors of the carnage of a once-great conference.

Now that the Pac-10 is dead and buried, Almost DailyBrett can assign blame where it belongs, right on the feet of Larry Scott. His legacy is the final demise of a once-great conference.

The dead dog is on your doorstep, Larry. It didn’t have to end this way.

Larry Scott’s Last Chapter

Are ESPN and Fox Sports Guilty of Racketeering?

Pac-12 After Midnight?

“The Conference of Champions”?

PR Majors Buy Low Sell High

“Put on your mask first before helping others.” — Crew instructions to airline passengers

“There are two paths to go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on.” — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, 1971

Vows of poverty get old real fast.

Almost DailyBrett must state the obvious: There is only one major offered by today’s university journalism and communications schools, which provide the genuine prospect of a lucrative career: public relations.

Is your author biased? Terribly so.

The irony is yours truly received his bachelor’s degree in broadcasting journalism at USC and later — much later — his master’s degree in communication and society from the University of Oregon.

Almost DailyBrett lived at home for the first four years after college, primarily because residing anywhere else required legal tender. Journalism provides limited (and diminishing) opportunities to (gasp) build wealth. What wealth?

Today’s university journalism and communications schools offer a variety of majors (i.e., journalism, broadcasting journalism, communications studies … ), but only one makes money, serious money: public relations.

Your author taught PR, marketing, corporate communications and investor relations as a public relations instructor and tenure track professor at the University of Oregon and Central Washington University respectively for eight years.

The gender divide for PR students is approximately 80 percent women and 20 percent men. The rubber meets the road, when it comes to seizing the day (e.g., Carpe Diem) with post-graduate employment opportunities (real salaries, full benefits and maybe even equity) at publicly traded companies and international public relations firms.

The majority of our PR graduates are Buying Low Selling High. They are building wealth with six-figure salaries. They are giving back to society. They are winning.

The typical entry points into journalism (e.g., local and regional newspapers, radio and television stations) are dying. Digital is winning. Analog is losing.

Communal poverty is misery loving company. Fighting for Social Justice with a note pad or a microphone does not impress employers, who may have other (e.g., neo liberal) views.

Like many others, Almost DailyBrett was offered out-of-the-blue a career-changing big break: Serving as the press director for the (George) Deukmejian Campaign Committee way back in the Stone Age, 1982. It meant going over to the dark side (e.g., political public relations).

We won. We went to Sacramento. Your author couldn’t hold a job, he kept on being promoted. There was no quiet quitting. There was hard work and overcoming obstacles.

The undergraduate degree from USC opened up the first doors. The willingness to change from dead-end journalism to the New Frontiers of public relations did the rest.

Dumping on Journalism?

“Dad’s paying for her crypto-Marxist post-deconstructual feminist-poetry-theory-whatever major; she could have stuck around for the cake.” — Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis) referencing the academic “major” of Meg Thrombey (Katherine Langford) in “Knives Out”

“Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is Journalism … When we shift our attention from ‘save newspapers’ to ‘save society,’ the imperative changes from ‘preserve the current institutions’ to ‘do whatever works.” And what works today isn’t the same as what used to work.” — NYU Professor of New Media Clay Shirky

Public relations pros are not Switzerland. They are not neutral. They have a point of view. They have an agenda, always have always will.

Journalists are not Switzerland. They are no longer neutral. They now have a point of view. They now have an agenda. Readers and viewers are entitled to their opinions, most of all to their interpretations.

Public relations hasn’t changed. Journalism’s cancer has metastasized. The profession is completing its political reverse metamorphosis from an objective butterfly to an illiberal caterpillar.

Would Almost DailyBrett buy a dog with fleas? Public trust in journalism has been cratering for nearly 50 years. The trend is downwards to the right.

Your author would not recommend majoring in archeology, poetry or theatre arts. Are the prospects in journalism just as desultory as the aforementioned disciplines?

Alas, the answer is to the affirmative.

Collapse in Public Trust In America’s Media

Is Journalism A Dead-End Major?

Is “Journalism” Dividing America?

“Social Justice Factories?”

Why Newspapers Are Toast

Are “Studies” Majors, Employable?

Is Journalism A Dead-End Major?

“Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn’t out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents’ farm.” — Generative AI descriptor of Sports Illustrated bi-lined “author,” Drew Ortiz

“Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate.” — Sports Illustrated statement, November 28, 2023

“Dad’s paying for her crypto-Marxist post-deconstructual feminist-poetry-theory-whatever major.” — Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis) referencing the academic “major” of Meg Thrombey (Katherine Langford) in “Knives Out”

It’s accepted wisdom that three university courses of study take students on a one-way trip to nowhere: Archeology, Poetry, Theatre Arts. Ditto for any major with the word “studies” in the title.

Should Journalism as we know it today be added to this dubious list?

Almost DailyBrett certainly hopes not, but reality is raising its ugly head. Not only is public esteem for Journalism as a “profession” at record lows (34 percent), but now there is the specter of artificial intelligence (AI) actually writing stories with fake bylines, bios and images.

Has fake news now become ersatz stories written by avatars with AI-generated images? When will the financial pressure be so unbearable for publicly traded media companies that some and eventually all succumb to the temptation of just letting the machines do all the work?

As a USC broadcasting journalism major way back in the 1970s Stone Age (e.g., Woodward and Bernstein), the profession was really that (e.g., 72 percent trust), a respected and revered occupation (certainly not the oldest profession). A great publication then is now referenced as a “once-celebrated legacy magazine,” Sports Illustrated.

Talk about damning with faint praise.

Your author would have sacrificed his first born to work at Sports Illustrated. It would have entailed covering the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and maybe working on the swimsuit issue. Today the venerable publication is being falsely accused of publishing/uploading AI generated content.

The story is false for now, but could it be real? Is it not of case of “if,” but “when?’

Can AI Save Journalism?

“Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving newspapers demanding to know, ‘If the old model is broken, what will work its place?’ To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the Internet just broke.” — Clay Shirky, NYU vice provost for Educational Technologies

“Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is Journalism … When we shift our attention from ‘save newspapers’ to ‘save society,’ the imperative changes from ‘preserve the current institutions’ to ‘do whatever works.” And what works today isn’t the same as what used to work.” — NYU Associate Professor Clay Shirky

Some may conclude that dying regional newspapers most likely will be the first to fire annoying journalists with their incessant demands for more pay, sick leave and time off, and just leave it to the machines to generate the copy. Will they do whatever works?

Or will a major masthead (i.e., New York Times, Washington Post), network (i.e., NBC News, CBS Evening News …) or cable news networks under Nielsen Ratings pressure (i.e., CNN, MSNBC) opt for generative AI to serve their partisan audiences?

From a balance sheet standpoint, there will be assets (revenue generating) and liabilities (acquisition and maintenance costs) with AI. Journalists themselves are liabilities, pure and simple.

Almost DailyBrett must ask the question: If America’s “trust” in Journalism can’t go any lower, then why shouldn’t our media companies sell out to generative artificial intelligence? It will be a profound PR challenge to explain why?

Maybe college students should major in still respected public relations and brand management, not journalism?

https://futurism.com/sports-illustrated-ai-generated-writers

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/sports-illustrateds-ai-generated-stories-third-party-1235810314/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/27/media/sports-illustrated-deletes-articles-fake-author-names-ai-profile-photos/index.html

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1663/media-use-evaluation.aspx

Could AI Eliminate Human Writers?

Why Newspapers Are Toast

Generative AI Cheating Is Still, Cheating

Journalism’s Blind Faith

Should Reporters Register As Lobbyists?

Are “Studies” Majors, Employable?

Is There A Future For American Men?

“Never mistake activity for achievement.” — Legendary basketball coach John Wooden

Are women smarter than men?

Will there be smart men for them to marry?

Almost DailyBrett remembers his undergraduate days at USC in the mid-1970s. The student ratio of men- to-women at the University of Southern California was three-to-one.

Sports Illustrated photo – Kevin in the endzone

The sororities were extremely selective about accepting an “exchange” from a fraternity located on “The Row,” 28th Street in south of downtown, LaLaLand. If a Kappa (Kappa Gamma) actually exhaled in your direction, you were a celebrity in your respective Haus (e.g., Phi Tappa Keg).

According to the American Communities Project (ACP), overall college student bodies are now comprised of 56 percent fairer gender and 44 percent knuckle draggers. That 12 percent delta is huge, and can only be expected to grow.

To top it off, women lead in all categories in all geographies and all demographics and psychographics.

Almost DailyBrett remembers as an assistant professor of public relations, advertising, corporate communications, investor relations that more than 80 percent of his students were women.

Why? Women are more service oriented, extraverted with a better attention to detail. Are PR men as a whole making more money on a per capita basis than women? Unfortunately yes, but that gap is narrowing and at some point the ratio will become inverted.

If working age men are eschewing college in our consumer service oriented world, what are they doing instead?

According to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), 33 percent of working age males are doing absolutely nothing (i.e. playing video games, binge watching, hanging out with friends). Their girlfriends have become mommies without giving birth.

Jobs or Positions?

Scores of men, who appreciate they are not extraverts and question the value of college, are opting for apprenticeships in a whole host of trade occupations.

Union Proud Union Strong produced the following chart delineating the value of a skilled apprenticeship as opposed to a four-year education with annoying student loans.

The result paints a compelling but deceiving picture of the value of apprenticeships, similar to Germany’s Mittelstand companies (really good at a given business, Faber-Castell in upscale pens and pencils).

Almost DailyBrett appreciates the apprenticeship argument, but is not sure this skilled worker choice is the best for the long term.

First, there is a profound difference between a job and a position. The latter provides the security of a salary, full benefits, and in cases of publicly traded companies, ESPP (employee stock purchase programs) and stock options. Positions lead to wealth, not so much with mere jobs.

The average worker with a BA/BS degrees makes $17,500 more year than those with only a high school diploma, that’s a $700,000 delta when multiplied over 40 years. Can the apprentice/tradesman work for four decades?

The average college grad with a position has a better chance for a long-career. Finally, 73 percent of BA/BS degree recipients invest in markets with discretionary income, 83 percent of those with master’s degrees and doctorates. It all comes down to building wealth. Don’t worry about student loans, they will be paid off by the recipient.

Topping it off, 62 percent of women are active members of the investor class. They are buying and selling stocks and stock-based mutual funds. They have discretionary income. Is this statement true for all women? No, but the trend is definitely on the side of the fairer gender.

Go to college! And when you get there, you will find women, smart women.

In All Kinds of Communities, a Growing Gender Gap in College Enrollment

Women Are Leading America’s Investor Class

Men Who Need “Mommies”

Women Supporting Losers

Googling When A Woman Is In Her “Prime?”

Kicking Elite Universities In The Endowment?

“Enclosed is a check for $1 which represents the first installment of a multi-year pledge which we will renew until you find employment elsewhere and the Board of Trustees grows the backbone to fulfill its mission, which is to govern the university according to the principles upon which it was founded.” — Wharton School graduate Jonathon Jacobson to University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill

The University of Pennsylvania has “become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable.” — Former Utah Governor and U.S. Ambassador John Huntsman, Jr.

“It took less than two weeks to go from the ‘Palestine Writes’ literary festival on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus to the barbaric slaughter and kidnapping of Israelis.” — UPenn graduate and Apollo Management CEO Marc Rowan, asking fellow UPenn alums not to contribute to this particular iteration of the Ivy League school.

Who do cowering university presidents (e.g., UPenn president Magill) fear the most? Strident anti-Semitic faculty-and-student activists or big ticket alumni?

Almost DailyBrett has long contended that you can run, but you can’t hide from alma-mater development and alumni associations. No matter where and how often you move, they will always find you (e.g., USC, University of Oregon).

They would have located Osama bin Laden long before the CIA.

If alumni contributions to a given university’s endowment are so vital for the future of a given academic institution, one would think university presidents — guided by their respective provosts — would make every effort possible to avoid pissing off well-heeled alums.

Alas, one would be wrong.

Waitresses and waiters particularly notice overly large and miserly tips, but not the standard 15 percent. When an alum contributes seven figures one year, and one dollar the next, one would think this monumental shift in sentiment would be duly noted by university administrators.

Maybe not. Consider that private UPenn with the sixth largest endowment in the nation ($21 billion), right behind: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT. The University of Pennsylvania already boasts 11 figures. Does the Philadelphia campus really need anymore?

What’s more important: academic freedom or legal tender? If you take academic freedom and $4.70 to Starbucks, you will still walk out with a grande latte.

Do Activist Faculty-Students Usurp Successful Alumni?

“The university that I attended and that shaped me, is virtually unrecognizable today, and the values it stands for are not American ones.” — HighSage Ventures billionaire founder Jacobson, who made a seven-figure donation to Penn last year … $1 this year

Some elite Fourth Estate types immediately pontificated and bloviated that alumni backlashes/boycotts will have little or no impact on the appalling behavior of on-campus anti-Israel conferences/seminars/protests with unpleasant anti-Semetic invective/excuses-for-Hamas rhetoric (putting it mildly) .

On what factual basis can these Manhattan and Beltway media elites offer this “interpretation?” Weren’t they the ones that reported that Israel bombed the Gaza Strip hospital?

Is is simply because Ivy League UPenn is a private research university, and thus it has the latitude to lend its good name and brand to groups (“Palestine Writes Literature Festival”) with the express purpose of exterminating Israel?

Some “festival.”

To President Magill’s credit she eventually condemned Hamas atrocities, but were her words too little, too late? More importantly, why turn over her campus as a staging point for anti-Semitic, Hamas apologists?

Are the shrillest and most strident faculty-student voices the deciding forces for any once-great university? What about the quiet majority on campus? And what about those, who attended your school, overachieved in life, and are now paying the bills?

One would think their opinions should be heard. One would be wrong.

https://www.inquirer.com/education/university-of-pennsylvania-liz-magill-palestine-writes-antisemitism-20231015.html

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/business/harvard-upenn-donors-israel/index.html

https://www.foxnews.com/media/university-pennsylvania-grapples-donor-crisis-after-palestine-writes-event-causes-uproar

https://nypost.com/2023/10/19/big-upenn-donors-slam-checkbooks-over-lack-of-israel-support/

https://www.foxnews.com/media/columbia-professor-calls-university-president-coward-fiery-speech-campus-anti-israel-activism

https://www.foxnews.com/us/ivy-league-school-under-fire-hosting-antisemitic-writers-festival

https://investments.upenn.edu/about-us

Profs Should Not Force Political Opinions On Students

“Social Justice Factories?”

Time To End “Legacy” Admissions

Whattya Really Think Prime Time?

“Who makes these 8 o’clock games? Dumbest thing ever. Stupidest thing ever invented in life. Who wants to stay up until 8 o’clock for a darn game?” — Colorado Coach Deion Sanders on tonight’s ESPN 8 pm (MDT) kickoff against Stanford

“What about the East Coast? Do they even care about ratings? Is anyone watching it? What are we supposed to do with the kids all day until 8 o’clock? What are we supposed to do in the hotel?” — More from “Coach Prime”

Almost DailyBrett rhetorically has been asking the same questions over-and-over again: ‘Where are the university presidents?’ ‘Where are the university athletic directors?’

Does ESPN or to a lesser extent Fox Sports run your campus, or do you? If the answer is the former, then what is your value-add for society? What is your purpose?

Maybe your jobs (i.e., university president and athletic director) can be farmed up to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine learning. Are the machines smarter? Do they have more common sense?

Your author remembers growing up in SoCal, and seeing very clearly delineated on USC’s football schedule the exact starting times for each game, and which contest serves as the backdrop for alumni homecoming.

Imagine serving as the Homecoming coordinator, and you don’t know the start of the game until ESPN decides?

There is nothing good that comes from “Pac-12 After Dark” broadcasts, other than these games serve as programming content for ESPN’s late-night broadcast windows for the arrogant linear network.

Maybe Prime Time’s hyperbolic “Dumbest thing ever” and “Stupidest thing ever invented in life” comments will prompt reexamination about games that commence way too late. Is Almost DailyBrett a Pollyanna for thinking/hoping/believing that something good will come from Coach Prime’s comments?

Certainly Coach Prime has the attention of the college football world, including the Pharisees in Bristol, Ct. They have to know that a la carte streaming-only is coming. Linear broadcast windows will become obsolete. With streaming, viewers can simply pick from a menu of available games. The kick-off times decided not by a friggin’ network, but … wait … by the actual university.

Even in this Wild Wild West age of recruits charging $5,000 for campus visits, transfer portals, NIL deals, college football is still college football or at least it should be. Shouldn’t the games first-and-foremost be about students and alumni of a given university, not the bottom line of Disney’s failing ESPN business unit?

Nothing Good Happens After 8 pm

“Let the other teams expose themselves.” — Former Indiana Basketball Coach Robert Montgomery Knight on ESPN’s 9:30 pm EST Big Monday tip-offs

“Thank God we’re not going to be in this conference.” — Colorado Coach Deion Sanders on the Buffaloes moving to the Big 12 in 2024

As a 34-year Autzen Stadium season ticket holder on the opponent’s 30-yard line, Almost DailyBrett loves the passion and intensity of the sold-out Bucket List venue.

EUGENE, OR – SEPTEMBER 23: Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders walks off the field after losing to the Oregon Ducks 42-6 at Autzen Stadium September 23, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

What your author noted time-and-time again is the profound difference in deportment and behavior of fans attending a 12:30 pm game vs. the rowdiness of a 7:30 pm “Pac-12 After Dark” contest.

Before early afternoon games, the libation of choice usually starts first with lattes and cappuccinos, and then moves to upscale microbrews as the sun reaches its zenith point. For a night game, it’s beer and it’s been beer hour-after-hour. The crowd is well lubricated (some even sneak in flasks) by After Dark kickoffs.

ESPN predictably will counter that its Sept. 16 Colorado vs. Colorado State broadcast drew 9.3 million folks, even though the triple-overtime game kicked off at 8:21 pm MDT/10:21 pm EDT and didn’t conclude until 12:25 am MDT/2:25 EDT, more than four hours later.

The argument in response is, it’s all about Prime Time. Hopefully, Coach Prime’s comments will force some rethinking — not by ESPN, forget that – but by university presidents and athletic directors.

It’s time for proud universities to stop waving white flags, and to eliminate “surrender” from their vocabularies.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38644056/deion-sanders-calls-late-start-s-stupidest-thing-ever

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/colorado-deion-sanders-rips-late-night-kickoffs-dumbest-thing-ever

https://www.si.com/college/stanford/football/deion-sanders-calls-late-night-start-against-stanford-dumbest-thing-ever

Will Arrogant Linear Legacy ESPN Laugh Last?

Are ESPN and Fox Sports Guilty of Racketeering?

Has ESPN Ruined College Football?

Pac-12 After Midnight?

Oregon Marketing Paid Huge Big 10 Dividends

“(Damon) Huard is back to throw the ball. Sets up. Looks. Throws toward the corner of the end zone. It’s intercepted. Intercepted. The Ducks have the ball. Now it’s to the 35. The 40. Kenny Wheaton is going to score. Kenny Wheaton is going to score. Twenty. The 10. Touchdown. Kenny Wheaton on the interception. The most improbable finish to the football game.” – Voice of the Ducks Jerry Allen calling the “Pick” against the Washington Huskies, October 22, 1994

When Kenny Wheaton picked off Washington’s Damon Huard with 50 seconds left in the game, he was not wearing Nike gear. He was sporting Champion threads with a pissed-off Donald Duck on the sleeves.

The “Pick” propelled Oregon to its first Rose Bowl in 37 years, eliminating all discussion the Ducks couldn’t win. It also spurred the personal interest in Oregon’s most celebrated, billionaire alum Phil Knight.

What did Oregon need to compete year-in and year-out, Uncle Phil asked then Head Coach Mike Bellotti. The answer was an indoor-practice facility. That conversation one year after “The Pick” set off a marketing and building boom that paid dividends this week with Oregon being invited to join USC, UCLA and yes, Washington in the Bigger 10.

There was a time in the 1970s when folks in Los Angeles, Palo Alto and most of all, Seattle openly talked about kicking Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State out of the Pac-8. Oregon was a track school. Oregon State was a cow college.

When asked if Pullman, Washington was the end of the world, then WSU basketball coach George Raveling said: “No, but you can see it from there.”

Since the mid-1990s — after the Ducks went to the Rose Bowl — Oregon played twice for the Natty and won three Rose Bowls in a row. Marcus Mariota won the Heisman.

The school’s Athletic Department became a Nike enhanced marketing’s machine. The Ducks became cool. Autzen Stadium and the facilities are first class. The “O” is recognized around the world, including the trains of Paris and the streets of Rome.

The Ducks pulled off once unthinkable recruiting coups in Southern California, including De Anthony Thomas and Kayvon Thibodeaux et al. These studs would automatically be ticketed for USC, no more.

America’s Cul-de-Sac

What can never be changed is Oregon’s geography.

The relatively small state hits harder than its size, despite its misguided, smoldering and failing major city, Portland. Oregon is tucked away in the return-address label corner of America, far away from the collectivist infinite wisdom of the Atlantic Seaboard.

How does one overcome geography, time zones and meteorology (read: rain)? Sustained accomplishments. Oregon is undoubtedly cool with its triple-threat mascot (aerial, land, sea) Duck mascot, and more important, success on the field, the court and the classroom.

Almost DailyBrett is a believer in the adage: Success begets success.

As the Big 10 universities considered adding Oregon to the mix, they could all count of how many times they have been beaten by the Ducks including the Rose Bowl (2x vs. Wisconsin).

Even though your author laments the end of the Pac-12 and increased travel for student athletes at Oregon, USC, UCLA and even Washington, there is a gratification that effective marketing works, it works Big 10 wonders.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/story/2023-08-02/commentary-usc-oregon-big-ten

Ducks vs. Dawgs to End the Season?

The “O” and the “Swoosh” Side-by-Side

Time To Face The Pac-9 Music

“These decisions are never easy and we’ve valued our 12 years as proud members of the Pac-12 Conference. — (yaa sure, but) — We look forward to achieving new goals while embarking on this exciting next era as members of the Big 12 Conference.” — University of Colorado Chancellor Philip DiStefano and Athletic Director Rick George joint statement

“That old dog won’t hunt.” — Former Texas Governor Ann Richards

With all due Almost DailyBrett respect, if San Diego State is the answer then what the hell is the question?

The cumulative impact of $5.4 million per annum Harvard-Head Larry Scott’s failed combo of nobody-can-watch Pac-12 Networks, botched expansion and out-of-control excessive spending has resulted in the ultimate in ESPN Schadenfreude.

The leader in arrogant eastern seaboard sports programming, ESPN, is gloating over another reduction of Pac-12 membership first from 12-to-10 — USC and UCLA to the Big 10 — and today — Colorado to the Big 12.

Make that nine remaining members of the so-called, “Conference of Champions.” How many championships just flew the coop?

As Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend asked: “Who’s Next?”

Colorado goes out the door paying zero Pac-12 exit fee, and is expected to reap $31.7 million annually as a new member of the Big 12. For the Buffaloes, this decision was a no-brainer.

Can Utah be far behind? The Utes played in the Rose Bowl twice in a row, Mission Accomplished. What’s the incentive to continue?

How about the two Arizonas, particularly UA with its legendary basketball program? Will they too join their Four Corners’ neighbors in the Big 12?

Who would be left as collateral for Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to market a linear/streaming television contract? If this task was difficult before, it’s downright impossible today.

Almost DailyBrett is a lifelong fan of what once was the Pacific 8 Conference. Heck your author has his undergraduate degree in broadcasting journalism from USC and his master’s in communication from the University of Oregon.

In the next few days, will the conference complete the roundtrip from 12 members to only eight, or maybe even six (i.e. Cal, Stanford, Oregon, OSU, Washington, WSU)?

What will happen to the traditional rivalry between Land Grant pioneers, Oregon State and Washington State?

The early betting is that Nike marketing Wunderkind Oregon and Mistake on the Montlake Washington will be paired in an ESPN or Fox Sports mega conference. Stanford with its academic prowess could possibly join them.

What happens to Cal, OSU and WSU? Do we really care? Cal last played in the Rose Bowl in 1959. Oregon State recorded its only Rose Bowl win in 1942. The game was played in Durham, N.C.

When San Diego State announced its intentions to remain in the Mountain West Conference, one instinctively knew the Aztecs ran out of patience with the Pac-12’s inability to secure a multi-million-dollar, multi-year linear (e.g., Fox Sports) and streaming (e.g., Apple TV) broadcast contract.

The same is obviously true with Colorado, which joined the Pac-12 only a dozen years ago. What did Colorado accomplish? Nothing. Now they have Prime Time, and they are selling out for prime-time revenues.

Not About The “Student” Athlete

“They may cease to exist 10 years from now.” — Former Michigan Heisman Trophy winner/ESPN analyst Desmond Howard laughing out loud about the fate of the Pac-12

Almost DailyBrett by his very nature is a lifelong optimist, if not a Pollyanna. Having said that, Desmond Howard is way too upbeat about the Pac-12 chances of survival. Long-time ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum labeled the conference as a soon-to-be-irrelevant “train wreck,” heading toward the Pacific.

Only one thing is certain. The Pac-12 will stay together through the 2023-24 academic/athletic year. That’s all we know for sure.

Your author hopes to be wrong, but the writing is on the proverbial wall. Sooner-than-later there will be two-to-four mega conferences vying for 12 spots in the ESPN College Football Playoff.

The Pac-12 will not be one of them.

Is it too late for billionaire Phil Knight to Just Do It, and save the Pac-12? Your author counsels not betting against Uncle Phil.

He loves his two Pac-12 alma maters Oregon and Stanford, and has put his money behind his mouth for both of these schools. The questions remain: What can he do? What can anyone do at this point?

Finis Pac-12? Endo Musico?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38083687/colorado-board-unanimously-approves-move-pac-12-big-12

https://www.si.com/college/2023/07/27/pac-12-past-promises-ring-hollow-colorado-potential-exit

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/ncaa-football/college-football-realignment-pac-12-schools-may-follow-colorado-to-big-12

Larry Scott’s Last Chapter

USC’s Last Visit Ever To Autzen Stadium

If A Bear Poops In The Woods, Does UCLA Care?

Is ESPN Nationalizing “College” Football?