‘It’s a disgrace’: Ex-Lewis and Clark teammates, former Apple Cup rivals mourn the Pac-12’s demise
Three members of the 1978 Lewis and Clark Tigers football team are linked to the Apple Cup and the Pac-12 in ways that will never go away. Pat Lynch, Dan Lynch and Ray Cattage are all bitterly disappointed in the current state of the conference.
The departure of 10 teams, leaving Washington State and Oregon State to fend for themselves, has been a huge disappointment for the three former college athletes.
“My feeling is that the Pac-10/Pac-12 brand has to be preserved. I like the fact that we’re winning some court cases and so we have some money to use to keep the Pac- whatever it turns out to be, intact,” Pat Lynch said. “Maybe there’s going to be some reconsideration with these schools, but I doubt it. They seem to be pretty far into the process of leaving. It’s sad.”
“I think it’s one of those things where the NCAA has got to get their feet underneath them and start figuring out a way where they can participate in this process,” he continued. “And bring it down so that you’re now dealing with collegiate sports and not pro-junior is what it’s turning out to be.”
Dan Lynch said he understands the financial aspects of the situation, though he might not agree. He also expressed concern for the student-athletes.
“What screwed it up were the mass amounts of money in the media contracts which distorted everybody’s priorities and broke the conference into pieces. And the schools cannot ignore that much money,” he said.
“I don’t think this is done yet. I think there’s still more to happen. I think a lot of these schools that are in these conferences are going to break out. I’d be surprised if Cal and Stanford (which are joining the Atlantic Coast Conference) stay because it doesn’t make sense for them to send their volleyball team over to Syracuse every weekend.
“At some point people have to understand these are student-athletes and they’re trying to get their degrees. Very few of them will ever go pro,” Pat Lynch continued. “If you’re in a particularly hard major, if you’re a science major of some kind it can be really difficult to travel every weekend. Six hours there and six hours back from the east coast. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction, that everyone wanted to land somewhere as quickly as they could, but as soon as it begins to play out there will be even more changes. And some of it will change back.”
There’s one word stuck in Ray Cattage’s mind.
“It’s a disgrace,” he said. “It’s a disgrace because this league has always represented itself no matter what conference we played against. It’s been 100-plus years that this conference has been strong and building. And now to see what’s going on it’s about money and it’s a travesty what they’ve done to our conference.
“It’s about money. That’s all it’s about. They don’t care about the legacy. They don’t feel what we feel as students, as student-athletes that helped build and finance the conference to become what it became. That all of a sudden you’re saying that none of that matters, it’s all about television revenue. And that’s what it’s come down to. I don’t support it not even 1% …. You just don’t wipe a conference – a complete conference, a competitive conference – off the map just by throwing a few more dollars at it. I don’t get it, I really don’t get it.”