My two cents: New facilities will re-ignite Pac-12's arms race

My two cents: New facilities will re-ignite Pac-12's arms race 

When the slow-moving Colorado Buffaloes complete a $170 million makeover of their football plant, and soon thereafter UCLA finishes a $45 million football re-do, every Pac-12 football team will have put itself into significant debt service to keep pace in the league’s arms race.

And then it will begin again.

Oregon last week announced that Nike co-founder Phil Knight will fund the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center near Autzen Stadium, estimated at about $25 million, which will keep the Ducks a step ahead of everybody.

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The 29,000-square-foot project will include a sports-science coordinator, a sleep-recovery center for athletes, and a 3-D “motion capture” center with technology that not even all NFL teams have.

Knight said he hopes to create a “Niketown-

type atmosphere.”

Fundraising for a similar facility will inevitably begin soon at a Pac-12 school near you.