aren't gong en masse half or even all the way across the country to play college football.
The real issue is coaching. USC lost Pete Carroll. Oregon lost Chip Kelly. Stanford lost Jim Harbaugh. None of them have been replaced with an equal or better coach, so the final product has slipped.
Washington did really well to hire Petersen from Boise State, and look what it did. They were in the playoff in 2016.
As long as the talent pool is there in California, the Pac 12 will be a player in the game.
Just like Alabama struggled in between Gene Stallings and Nick Saban, and Florida isn't the same program without Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer as head coach, the Pac hasn't been the same since they lost those great coaches.