[CTcard]

If the conference begins to show it can compete in these marquee games, the P12 will be invited to play in the even higher profile night games on the opening weekend.  You gotta crawl before you can walk.  Right now, the P12 is in its crawling stage.  Heck, if I was the commissioner I would sign as many contracts as possible to get the conference’s teams in high profile TV games regardless of the kickoff time.  If successful, I would then be in a position to dictate who, where, and game time.

Past history shows that doesn't work.

Traditionally the Pac 12 plays a higher percentage of its out of conference games against P5 schools than do other conferences (though they also play fewer out of conference games overall). And overall the Pac 12's win/loss record in these games is fine (in fact, averaged over any length of time the P5 records against each other are pretty even, though if I remember correctly the SEC doing well against the ACC slightly raises one of those and lowers the other).

The lack of respect for the Pac 12 is a combination of college sports being less popular on the west coast and fan paranoia.

Here is a table on the topic apparently covering 1998 - 2020, though apparently excluding Notre Dame. Pac 12 has the second best inter-conference winning percentage.
Interconference.

[CTcard]

If the conference begins to show it can compete in these marquee games, the P12 will be invited to play in the even higher profile night games on the opening weekend.  You gotta crawl before you can walk.  Right now, the P12 is in its crawling stage.  Heck, if I was the commissioner I would sign as many contracts as possible to get the conference’s teams in high profile TV games regardless of the kickoff time.  If successful, I would then be in a position to dictate who, where, and game time.

Past history shows that doesn't work.

Traditionally the Pac 12 plays a higher percentage of its out of conference games against P5 schools than do other conferences (though they also play fewer out of conference games overall). And overall the Pac 12's win/loss record in these games is fine (in fact, averaged over any length of time the P5 records against each other are pretty even, though if I remember correctly the SEC doing well against the ACC slightly raises one of those and lowers the other).

The lack of respect for the Pac 12 is a combination of college sports being less popular on the west coast and fan paranoia.

Here is a table on the topic apparently covering 1998 - 2020, though apparently excluding Notre Dame. Pac 12 has the second best inter-conference winning percentage.
Interconference.