It's not all serious talk in Spartanburg. Sometimes you need to get off topic a little bit to break up the monotony of training camp.
After fielding some questions about his offseason and what goals he set for the 2023 season, Carolina Panthers cornerback Keith Taylor Jr. was asked about his thoughts on his alma mater, the University of Washington, leaving the PAC 12 for the Big Ten.
"I mean, it is what it is at the end of the day. In my opinion, I think the PAC 12 been kind of on the downhill over the last couple years. Nobody really had respect for the PAC 12, so I think it's a big move for UW and Oregon to branch out a little bit. I'll say the only downside to that is you got to play at Rutgers one week and you might have to stay up there an extra week playing against Penn State or something. That's probably going to be the downside of it but I think it's going to be big for them."
Poor Rutgers. They're the butt of the joke just about anytime Big Ten expansion talk swirls, but hey, they put themselves there. With two PAC 12 schools heading to the Big Ten and four others moving to the Big 12, there's just four members remaining - Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State.
Assuming Washington State doesn't move to the Big Ten, the future of the Apple Cup is in danger. For Keith Taylor, he doesn't really care about what happens to his former in-state rival. He's just happy that the rivalry with Oregon will remain alive.
"For the state of Washington, I guess that was like a rivalry. To me, it's like we blew them out every year so I wasn't tripping. The real rivalry was versus Oregon. I'm glad Oregon came with us."
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