Chip Kelly calls Pac-12 realignment sad, believes league should stay together

Chip Kelly has spent 10 years of his head coaching career in the Pac-12 conference, but realignment will change that following this season. Kelly began his career with Oregon in 2009, taking a four-year detour to coach in the NFL before returning to college to coach UCLA in 2018.

However, the Bruins are one of four schools along with Oregon, USC and Washington that will join the Big Ten in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are on to the Big 12, while Cal and Stanford accepted invitations to the ACC.

That spells the end of the league many college sports fans have come to know and love, and Kelly is understandably not a fan. Ahead of a Week 8 game against Stanford, the coach opened up on what his feelings are like heading to play the Cardinal for the last time for the foreseeable future.

“It’s all sad,” he said. “I have feelings on the whole thing. I think that we should all still be together. Some people should be able to work that out. Let’s criticize them. Let’s not criticize the high school athletes. Let’s criticize the people that are making really good money that have put us in this situation.

“It is sad and I’ve had some great games. Really enjoyed playing up there. Stanford’s had such a great tradition of football players, especially in the last 10 or 15 years.”

Kelly had some great battles with Stanford while he was at Oregon, going 2-2 against the Cardinal while coaching the Ducks. The two teams regularly competed for conference titles in the early 2010s, and a 2012 loss to Stanford prevented Oregon from competing in the Pac-12 title game.

He reminisced on some of those matchups, noting the great players who have played for the Cardinal throughout the years.

“The Andrew Lucks and the Toby Gerharts,” he said. “The Kodi Whitfields — I gotta make sure I say that. There’s been some tremendous players there and great rivalries. Zach Ertz is one of the all-time best tight ends to play in this conference and has had a tremendous career in the NFL. So that part’s a little, you know.”

Kelly went on to reiterate that he believes the league should stay together, but at this point the epitaph is already set in stone. At least the Pac-12 is going out on top, with some of the most entertaining offenses in all of college football. It looks to have a real Playoff contender in Washington, and the coach will continue to enjoy the final ride.

He also isn’t ruling out the possibility that some of these teams will meet again later down the road.

“We’re gonna keep saying that every week cause there’s only four of us going to one league and another four going to another league and two that didn’t get taken anywhere,” he said. “My feeling on that, I think we should be able to find a way. You never know in this world.

“As (Kyle) Whittingham told me, we both were waxing melodramatic and he said, ‘hey, in two years, we’ll probably be back in the same conference together anyway.’ Nobody really knows in this whole deal.”

UCLA and Stanford will kick off at 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Stanford Stadium.