[jayasena]

The conference DEFINITELY does not want the rivalry games to overlap each other.

This makes sense. The Pac-12 region has a lot of families with allegiances to multiple schools through siblings, kids/parents, marriages, friends, cousins, whatever. Plus it's the end of the season -- there's always interest in seeing how other teams do and what impact that has on where your your team ends up in the standings. If highly-ranked teams are involved, there's even national interest. I can definitely see how non-overlapping rivalry games can lead to a non-trivial bump in aggregate viewership.

Thanks Farm93 for the explanation of the scheduling conflicts that led to the big game being bumped. I think yours is the most detailed explanation I've seen.

[jayasena]

The conference DEFINITELY does not want the rivalry games to overlap each other.

This makes sense. The Pac-12 region has a lot of families with allegiances to multiple schools through siblings, kids/parents, marriages, friends, cousins, whatever. Plus it's the end of the season -- there's always interest in seeing how other teams do and what impact that has on where your your team ends up in the standings. If highly-ranked teams are involved, there's even national interest. I can definitely see how non-overlapping rivalry games can lead to a non-trivial bump in aggregate viewership.

Thanks Farm93 for the explanation of the scheduling conflicts that led to the big game being bumped. I think yours is the most detailed explanation I've seen.