It's Christmas time and some forgettable Pac-12 bowls are already over and some likely forgettable post-Christmas bowls are on the way. With the Pac-12 fire of boredom crackling and me missing the days of the Aloha and Oahu bowls being on Christmas, he is what I am asking the Pac-12 Santa Claus for in 2016.
A Pac-12 Playoff team - It sucks not having a Pac-12 team in the Playoff to root for or even root against if it is a rival of your favorite team. A Big 10/Pac-12 Rose Bowl is fun and the Alamo Bowl is a nice match-up, but it sure feels like the Pac-12 is going to be an afterthought this bowl season.
I have no idea who it could be (no Pac-12 team looks elite going into 2016), so I am not going to even ask for a national championship, but getting a Pac-12 team into next year's Playoff is what I am hoping for.
A Heisman for Christian McCaffrey - Everyone out West is pretty much in agreement McCaffrey should have won the award this year. Hopefully next year, he can have a repeat performance and get the award he deserves.
Better officials - I know this might be like asking for a Ferrari for Christmas, but please, please. Let's get better officials in the Pac-12 in 2016 or get the current ones to at least do a better job.
Less injuries - 2015 was a brutal year for injuries. Let's not have that happen again.
Pac-12 Networks deal with DirecTV - This still hasn't happened. My God.
Someone other than Oregon or Stanford wins the conference - Oregon and Stanford have won the conference every year since 2009. It's time for someone else to step up and every other program needs to stop banking on one of those programs taking a step back. Please someone, make it happen. I could not be more bored of both programs.Someone even just kind of becoming a legit threat would even be better.
The continued phasing out of the hurry-up - I recently wrote an article based on stats I saw from this season that showed the hurry-up was slowing down in the Pac-12. I know not liking the hurry-up hasn't been that common in college football, but I have always maintained that it at least kind of sucked. For Christmas, I hope we see the simplistic, sloppy, lopsided play the acceleration of the hurry-up has produced continue to fade away in 2016.
Quarterback improvement - For the second straight year, we will see a mass exodus of household Pac-12 names at quarterback. I am hoping the young quarterbacks in the conference who have the chance to be the next ones (Josh Rosen, Jake Browning, Anu Solomon, Seth Collins) progress into the next generation of Pac-12 quarterback greats.
