Oregon (the state) isn't paying for the college football arms race that Oregon (the university) helped to escalate 20 years ago with the necessity of an indoor practice facility. Also, the university's academic/research and entertainment components both are being propped up financially by the same source, in case you haven't noticed.

Your notion of exiting the Pac-12 is hardly new. It was floated 30 years ago when Oregon and OSU were begging for dollars, and ideas included mothballing both football programs, combining athletic departments to field teams representing both schools or simply assuming their rightful places in the Big Sky Conference.

One ill-informed wag, the student body president, even declared publicly that Brown University was getting along fine without football and so could Oregon, which must have been news to that Heisman chap on that fancy trophy who played at Brown.