Maybe it's fitting that the final regular season game in Pac-12 football history featured two teams that have played each other every year since 1922, in a building that opened the same year, just over a hundred years ago. The sentimentality was there, certainly for the broadcast, although the home team didn't seem to care all that much. Cal routed UCLA at the Rose Bowl 33-7 Saturday night, turning out the lights on a conference whose roots go back to 1915.

ESPN likes to call its 7:30pm Pacific Time kickoff 'Pac-12 After Dark', and while that is practically prime time on the west coast, it's also the reason the league is about to be history. It's too late back east, and players, who can now legally cash in on being seen, want more eyeballs, and thus more dollars, on them in earlier hours.

The announcers were already waxing melancholy, with preparations of sprinkling great conference moments into the broadcast. The Rose Bowl, which is home to over a hundred thousand fans on New Year's Day, was at only about half capacity, and the home town Bruins, fresh off a huge victory over crosstown rival USC seven nights earlier, looked like they were just waiting for the game to end so they could either go out to a party, or get to sleep for a big school day Monday. With Ohio State-Michigan, Auburn-Alabama, and other great rivalry games played earlier in the day, this just felt like something that needed to get over with.

While UCLA was turning over the ball four times, play-by-play broadcaster and Stanford grad Dave Flemming seemed to be the only one affected by the demise of the conference. In one of his on-camera segments, it actually looked like he was tearing up. The Apple Cup (Washington-Washington State), the Civil War (Oregon-Oregon State), and the Duel in the Desert (Arizona-Arizona State) had already been played, and this is how the league would go oh so gently into that good night. Cal did become bowl eligible with the victory, and UCLA will receive an invitation as well, although the story in LA now is if coach Chip Kelly will get to keep his job for next season.

There, of course, is one more Pac-12 football game to be played. The conference championship game is Friday in Las Vegas between Oregon and Washington. Those two schools will join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten next season, competing directly with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan. Cal and Stanford will be moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference (yeah, none of these names make sense anymore) with new rivals like Syracuse and Florida State. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah will be in the Big 12, and Oregon State and Washington State are conference-less at the moment.

UCLA and Cal did not send the so-called Conference of Champions out in a dramatic farewell. In fact, the ending couldn't have been scripted any better. The game was lackluster and dull, and so is what's left of a once-mighty conference. This game should have been played in the Colisseum in Rome amidst it's crumbling walls. The walls have come tumbling down on its football teams. We'll see it again in March for basketball. There's barely enough time to shed a tear, and then time moves on, or it's time to turn the channel to something else.

Cheaters prosper again: For the third straight year, Michigan has beaten Ohio State, and for the third straight week, the Wolverines have won despite their head coach being suspended. What's left of the NCAA banned Jim Harbaugh from the sidelines for three games as punishment for the team stealing signals from upcoming opponents. According to numerous reports, a Michigan staffer named Chris Stalions bought tickets to games of upcoming opponents, gave them to associates, and had them record the team's signals. The videos taken would then be used to decode the signs. Harbaugh claimed no knowledge of the incidents, but was given a slap on the wrist. He couldn't coach during the three games but was with his team during the week. By the way, recording the signals is not against NCAA rules. Scouting another team in person is, hence the sinister distribution of tickets.

More Ohio State-Michigan: The game itself was a good one, with the Wolverines winning at home 30-24. Both teams were unbeaten going in, meaning Michigan will play for a national championship if they beat Iowa in Saturday's Big Ten title game. While the Pac 12 finale was rather somber, the Fox broadcasters were in hyperbole hyperdrive. Play-by-play man Gus Johnson opened the broadcast by calling Ohio State-Michigan "the greatest rivalry in sports." All of sports? Really? You could argue it's not necessarily the best in college football. The network did show restraint, though, when Michigan lineman Zak Zinter was injured, apparently breaking his leg in two places. "We are not going to show it to you", said Johnson, but online video shows a defender knocked into Zinter, with him then going down awkwardly. Fox could have shown the video with a warning. We've seen worse.

Crown worthy: This could have been the main topic this week, but if you are in southern California, or at least a fan of LA area sports, you should check out the Los Angeles Kings. Hockey is not where the ratings are, especially with the NBA, NFL, and college football in high gear, and college basketball heating up, but the Kings are 13-3-3 so far this season, and a perfect 9-0 on the road. They also score four goals per game, tied for tops in the league with Vancouver.