02-21-2014, 08:06 AM
(02-21-2014, 05:55 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:Low APR U is the ideal team to give up a home game to play in China, for several reasons:First a disclaimer, I would most certainly try to go to the Stanford Asia game since that would be a nice experience. And, I suspect in the Pac-12 Stanford has the most fans that would actually try to travel to the game.
1. UC Berkeley has a very large percentage of Chinese students
2. Low APR U routinely agrees to take it in the shorts for others
3. The population is so small that the UC Berkeley "leaders" won't hear/will be indifferent to the hue and cry from the "real fans" for Low APR U giving up a home game
No fan of any team wants to give up a home football game, so Low APR U is the natural Pac-12 school to do it.
Stanford will be the logical choice for this experiment.
In Shanghai or Beijing the wealthy types dream of sending their kids to Stanford first. In most cases ahead of any other school in the USA, but definitely tops in the Pac-12. So those powerful types probably would want Stanford.
In terms of expats floating around, I suspect Stanford's tally would be competitive against the others in the Pac-12 too.
But most importantly, Stanford has a problem with early September home games. The fans, even on this board, hate them.
Easy fix to THAT problem. Take it away completely and make Stanford play a "home" game in mid-late August.
My guess is that a rivalry game would not be stolen, but Washington State or Oregon State vs Stanford seems viable if that game eliminated an early September home game for Stanford AND enabled both teams to start training camp a couple of weeks earlier than other teams.

