11-28-2018, 08:52 PM
(11-28-2018, 07:20 PM)2006alum Wrote:(11-28-2018, 07:13 PM)yvonne Wrote: If the country couldn't care less about a fair number of Pac-12 schools — something that could change had they the opportunity to watch teams — why is it necessary to play the majority of games at times inconvenient for fans? Only a few games, based on this reasoning, need to be played at 10:00 or later.
Because those games still draw more far more eyeballs on a Saturday night than the 12th edition of Sportscenter, so ESPN is happy to toss a bunch of cash at the Pac-12 to take that slot. I'm fairly confident when the next rounds of negotiations happen in the early/mid 2020s, that will no longer be the case, at which point they may revert to games that are better for fans than for networks. But by then we'll probably all be dead from [your choice of: global warming; global pandemic; AI overlords; nuclear winter], so debatable whether that's worth looking forward to...
All true. The sports nets would LOVE to have the Pac-12 play a few games with a 9PM PDT kick, if the Pac-12 were willing and the price was right. Loads of other conferences start at 9PM local time, so it is not impossible.
The SEC football teams are literally more valuable to their schools than the academic activities, and definitely more valuable to most citizens in those states than the academic efforts. It really is OK IMHO if Stanford is in a conference with a slightly different perspective on football, Olympic sports and academics.
FWIW - It is not those global events
- The general decline of mass market broadcasting
- Millenial viewing habits (They aren't big on traditional spectator sports)
- CTE
It will be much easier to drop football in 2040 if the Pac-16 is no longer financially competitive with the major conferences.