Seahawks' Pete Carroll 'Pretty Disappointed in College Football' Amid Pac-12 Exodus

As one of the greatest collegiate coaches of all-time, Pete Carroll has an affinity for the tradition and pride that comes with so many college football programs around the country.

That's why he is so sad watching from afar as the dawn of the superconference era has taken over college football, most notably the Pac-12—where he had a dominant run as the coach of USC in the early 2000s.

"I don't have enough information to comment clearly," Carroll told reporters on Sunday, via ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio. "But I'm really disappointed. I would think that there's a lot of people, a lot of fans that are disappointed, too. I know that it's a financial turn that they do and they've got to make their decisions and all, but there's something about the tradition of it that gets lost and I don't know where they recapture that, I don't know how they recapture the traditions that have been there so long.

"It's not just our conference out here, it's around the country too. I really don't understand. I'm pretty disappointed in college football right now. Just in general. Just disappointed it's gone the way it's gone. With all of the stuff that is happening, I hope they can get it right. And it comes out way better than maybe I can imagine it in my limited capacity here. I just kind of like the tradition of it, that I feel like we are missing. I don't know how you recapture that."

Carroll, 71, has been the coach of the Seattle Seahawks since 2010. But prior to that he had a dominant run with the Trojans in what was then-known as the Pac-10 from 2001-09, winning back-to-back national titles with the program in 2003 and 2004.

And in the crazy shuffle of the past few weeks, it turns out that it was the Pac-12 that wound up suffering the most, losing Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington to other conferences.

USC and UCLA previously made the decision to jump ship to the Big Ten and will join the conference next year.

By also adding Oregon and Washington to its ranks, the Big Ten will become the biggest conference in the nation with 18 programs.

All that's left of the Pac-12 is Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State. Rivalries like "The Civil War" between Oregon and Oregon State and the Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State will be placed on hold for at least a few years.

It's likely hard for a conference legend like Carroll to not get nostalgic about all the great battles with some of those squads, especially when the main reason for the dismantling is financial gain.

One of the big sticking points for teams in the Pac-12 was that conference commissioner George Kilavkoff couldn't secure a good media rights deal. The current deal is set to expire after this season and Apple seems to be the leader in the clubhouse, per ESPN's Pete Thamel and Heather Dinich.

The proposal wasn't enough to convince the programs to stay, however.