Pac-12 pondering earlier kickoff times
As we near the start of the college fall sports season, hype and excitement is abound for different teams in several sports.
Hope and expectations are ramping up everywhere while changes are happening in each sport at every level.
However, the most unique change being discussed will not affect any local team or sport.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott acknowledged last week that he has interest in games kicking off earlier.
Now, earlier for the Pac-12 is different for those of us on the East Coast.
The earliest games kickoff at noon EST, and Scott wants Pac-12 games starting at the same time.
The thing is, noon for us in 9 a.m. out west.
Is Scott serious when he says he wants to have games at 9 a.m.?
He is.
West coast fans always get to see games at 9 a.m. PST, it just happens to usually feature two east coast teams.
People have complained that this would kill the west coast crowds and put a serious damper on pregame tailgating.
But as several prominent college football pundits have shared, it isn鈥檛 like the Pac-12 draws well anyway and tailgating out west pales in comparison to conferences like the SEC and Big Ten.
Only one Pac-12 team, Washington, had more than 50,000 fans 鈥渋n-house鈥� at games last year on average, with it drawing 62,161 per game, according to Jon Wilner of The Mercury News.
If east coast games were bumped up to 9 a.m., would fans leave that much earlier to tailgate?
Could Scott actually be onto something though?
Currently, Pac-12 teams play games that start anywhere from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. PST.
Most east coast fans, and voters, do not see the late games as they end well after 1 a.m. EST.
Another positive is that the visiting teams would get home after flights around dinner time Saturday compared to pre-dawn hours on Sunday.
That would help with the educational aspect of things, and after all, the NCAA is all about student-athletes getting their educations, right?
Will Scott initiate the move this season?
Talking to friends who live out west, they are not in favor.
鈥淎 lot of people are transplants, so they will get up Saturday mornings to watch the Big Ten, SEC and ACC,鈥� said Jim Grosik, a Cal U grad who now lives in Phoenix. 鈥淣ot sure who (Scott) is targeting and it seems like a bad idea.
鈥淢aybe they will just do a handful (of games) as a trial.鈥�
Crazy stats of the week
Recently, Pat Forde from Yahoo 缅北禁地 wrote a piece that broke down unique facts about the upcoming college football season.
Several stood out, but none more than one about Power 5 (P5) road games by conference.
The ACC has 11, the Big 12 has nine, the SEC goes on the road four times against P5 teams and both the Big Ten and Pac-12 only have three P5 roads games each.
Anyone else find it interesting that the Big Ten and Pac-12 have both been left out of the College Football Playoff (CFP) the last two years yet have the least P5 road games?
If both miss the CFP again, no one should be surprised.
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