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Pac-12 Fight Club: Comedy and Calamity

By Shereen Rayan

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The Pac-12 Fight Club on Facebook has become one of my main sources of entertainment as I recently was invited by a fellow Wildcat Fanatic Max Pitpitan.

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Jason Guyan, Trojan Fan, and Angela Johnson, Ute Fan, are the administrators and originators of this page on Facebook. They started it in early March, 2015 and now have 1,466 members, 216 who are brand new.  The most vocal fans on the page are the Wildcats, followed by the Utes and the Trojans. It’s fun to see all the personalities by school represent themselves.

Not only on Facebook as a closed group (you have to be invited or ask to join and be approved by the site administrators), but now on Twitter (@Pac12FightClub) this club page is hysterical. I have never seen so many memes about the Pac-12 teams, it’s almost like the members speak in memes sometimes.

The object is to start a fight with your rivals or anyone who represents other schools by posting a story or a meme or a question, and elicit a reaction from the other members.  I have successfully started a handful of these where the comments number 50+.  The conversation sometimes morphs into new fights or arguments mostly about who has the best team or best fans, the skies the limit.

In June, they had the great idea to see if this would translate to Twitter.  So far there are 50+ followers, and the idea is to just get enough followers to make it fun, so if you haven’t yet followed @Pac12FightClub, you may want to, at the very least they will follow you back.  Angela and Jason have tried to get Bill Walton among other notable people to follow them, and if this happens we can all have some real fun.

Let me give you an example of how it works. A member of this closed group posts something, then everyone who wants to comments on it, so what would you comment on this post? Hmm?:

I asked Jason why he created this page in the first place and how did he go about it? “We were in another Pac-12 group. I won’t mention their names. I was thinking of starting my group before I joined. It was a fun group, until the admins started using more rules. Adults don’t like many rules,” said Jason, “so one night I decided to create my group. I invited good, quality people, or so at least I thought would help the page grow at the time. Their group was an “all ages” group, which to me ruins a trash talk group, because you have to be careful what you say, so I made it an adult only group.”

Angela added, “We also wanted to give it an electric feeling by adding players and involving them when the season starts. We also want the culture to be trash talk but also actually knowledgable. We also talk A LOT. Communication is huge.”

Mar 12, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Oregon Ducks forward Elgin Cook (23) and Oregon State Beavers forward Devon Collier (44) fight for the ball during the first half in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Jason explains more of the history, “I started the group with no admins. I failed at first. So when I was looking for an admin, Angela was my first choice. We both work at schools in our respected areas. You have to be mentally strong to do what we do. Teachers are great thinkers on the go, and are familiar with disciplining when needed.”

Take it from me, they are very disciplined on the site, a lot of swearing and good bantering is allowed, but you will find out fast if you have gone too far. In addition, you have never met such driven people, they really would like to interact with former and current players and sports media, it’s contagious and consuming all at the same time.

Why Twitter? “I wanted to expand to Twitter as an advantage, and figured we could interact with players. I also thought it would be a game changer, and an advantage over the other groups competing with us. The up to the second updates on PAC 12 related stuff is huge for me. I never thought of interacting with the media on Twitter, but it’s turned out to be a Godsend for our group.”

It’s also good for the media, you get some great ideas for what interests fans, you can post your articles and get feedback and you can interact in a safe place. In addition there are a few former Pac-12 athletes such as Brian Blechen, Matt Martinez, John Madsen, Soni kinikini and Gionni Paul, all Utes, Brian Watkins a Beaver, Lucas Gravell a Cougar, Connor T O’Brien a Husky, Carter Wood a Wildcat and Trojans Max Wittek and Damien Pauna-Mama.

Mar 9, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Oregon State Beavers guard Alyssa Martin (24) and USC Trojans forward Cassie Harberts (11) fight for the ball during the first half at Key Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Some of the members wanted to share their thoughts with you as well:

Micheal Claric Lol I’m a Oregon fan, I just love talking smack on any other team, especially against Oregon State and Washington

Brett Shepherd In the end, there is respect for the 11 wannabes from us USC fans.

Dominic Lewis Talking smack is apart of sports and this is a great forum to do so against other teams in the best conference in all of college sports. There is every type of fan here (logical, delusional, super emotional, etc) but we all have one thing in common, we love our Pac 12 teams!

Joe Rojas I’d say that if you’re only in a group that caters to your respective team you are missing out. You can rep your team in the fight club, make some friends from other teams (and enemies). Then join together for bowl season and rep this Conference which is the Conference of Champions.

Jd Adamson Utah Utes!!… This page has kind of taken over my Facebook life, over the last week that I’ve been a member. I would say beware.

Bob Rodgers I’m a member of a few other national trash talk groups with college football and it feels good to be with family. If I have to see another SEC post from a Georgia, Tennessee or Mississippi State fan saying it’s their year, I’m going to puke. Top to bottom the Pac 12 is the deepest league. Even OSU or Wazzu could surprise some people.

Of course they couldn’t help themselves, half way through the comments the post turned into a USC vs. UCLA fight with meme’s and put downs and all, I had to bring them back to the question I asked.  These posts and conversations morph into the funniest conversations honestly.

Jason’s message to all you Arizona Wildcats fans and fans of those “other schools”:

“Follow us on Facebook to a have a fun and enjoyable experience. We’re like one big happy family. Most of all it’s a lot of laughs. The trash talking part really cracks me up most of the time. Quite hilarious to say the least.” He adds, “The Twitter part is for up to the second updates with your favorite teams, players, journalists, and reporters. Just start following them at @pac12fightclub. From Twitter, we can share things too.”

I agree. I guarantee you will laugh, and growl, and pound your fist, and ponder, and debate, you will just plain have some fun if you are into that type of stuff.

In the end everyone seems to “Back the Pac”, and if we talk about a team outside the Pac-12, we are pretty cohesive in our thoughts.

You can ask to join by clicking here, you have to be 18 years or older.

Beardown Pac-12 fans!

Next: Producer of Ted 2 is an Arizona Wildcat, ASU Jokes abound

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