[Snorlax94]

The key that might make this work is coach acceptance.

Fans are not thrilled with 8PM kicks that end near midnight, but the teams hate them.   The road team is often no getting home until 3 or 4AM.  It is hard on the "student"-athletes on the road team as they lose Sunday too.  It is also hard on the family of the staff as they really treasure their Sunday time which is lost if Mom or Dad is getting back to home an hour or so after the players were delivered to campus.   No reason to cry for multi-millionaire head coach, but the staff includes a number of trainers and equipment managers that are not making massive money.

Given that apparently a few head coaches are willing to give it a go.  The conference only has 5 or 6 assets to offer broadcasters each weekend.   The value maximizing objective is to avoid overlap between the 5 or 6 assets AND to the extent possible avoid the #1 SEC and #2 SEC games of the week that are normally broadcasted at ~ 4PM Eastern and ~7:30PM Eastern.

The Pac-12 is trying to find a pond (timeslot) where they can be the biggest fish.   The burdens of the 5th most popular college football conference.  Don't blame Larry.   The reality is clear.  Our neighbors and fellow USA citizens who would rather watch the SEC on TV than watch a Pac-12 product in the stands or on TV.   Larry can't quite say that at the Pac-12 media day, but that is the reality.  9AM will be a total failure, but after that failure 8PM will seem more appealing to Pac-12 season ticket holders.  That remains 8PM/ 9PM(mountain) time slot the conference needs fans in the Pac-12 footprint to understand and support.

I appreciate that the conference is trying to own a time slot and maximize revenues, but I disagree.

First, the Pac 12 already has a game it “owns” at 7pm, there is no reason to own more than one. The reason why it’s so easy to own that timeslot is because it’s so unappealing. How many viewers can you hope to get when a 7:30 game ends at 2AM eastern time?

Second, a hallmark failure of the Pac 12 in recent years has been to cheapen its brand, shrink support and empty its stadiums by treating the Pac 12 as a second-class product. If you repeatedly offer up the Pac 12 as a cheap product with unwanted time slots, groveling to switch kickoff times to whatever time a broadcaster will offer, you cheapen your product year after year. The stadiums get emptier, and who wants to watch a game on TV when it’s broadcast at remnant times with half-empty stadiums?

The west coast Pac-12 media markets are an absolute jewel. Viewers have disproportionately large discretionary incomes, large HD TVs yearning for content, workers at companies that are leading the world. I see companies like Alaska Airlines who get this and are making a killing serving these markets. So,  I don’t buy that Larry Scott has a tough position with a weak product; he has the conference with the most championships across all sports and weakens the conference’s brand and long-term prospects day after day with his endless short-term schemes.

[Snorlax94]

The key that might make this work is coach acceptance.

Fans are not thrilled with 8PM kicks that end near midnight, but the teams hate them.   The road team is often no getting home until 3 or 4AM.  It is hard on the "student"-athletes on the road team as they lose Sunday too.  It is also hard on the family of the staff as they really treasure their Sunday time which is lost if Mom or Dad is getting back to home an hour or so after the players were delivered to campus.   No reason to cry for multi-millionaire head coach, but the staff includes a number of trainers and equipment managers that are not making massive money.

Given that apparently a few head coaches are willing to give it a go.  The conference only has 5 or 6 assets to offer broadcasters each weekend.   The value maximizing objective is to avoid overlap between the 5 or 6 assets AND to the extent possible avoid the #1 SEC and #2 SEC games of the week that are normally broadcasted at ~ 4PM Eastern and ~7:30PM Eastern.

The Pac-12 is trying to find a pond (timeslot) where they can be the biggest fish.   The burdens of the 5th most popular college football conference.  Don't blame Larry.   The reality is clear.  Our neighbors and fellow USA citizens who would rather watch the SEC on TV than watch a Pac-12 product in the stands or on TV.   Larry can't quite say that at the Pac-12 media day, but that is the reality.  9AM will be a total failure, but after that failure 8PM will seem more appealing to Pac-12 season ticket holders.  That remains 8PM/ 9PM(mountain) time slot the conference needs fans in the Pac-12 footprint to understand and support.

I appreciate that the conference is trying to own a time slot and maximize revenues, but I disagree.

First, the Pac 12 already has a game it “owns” at 7pm, there is no reason to own more than one. The reason why it’s so easy to own that timeslot is because it’s so unappealing. How many viewers can you hope to get when a 7:30 game ends at 2AM eastern time?

Second, a hallmark failure of the Pac 12 in recent years has been to cheapen its brand, shrink support and empty its stadiums by treating the Pac 12 as a second-class product. If you repeatedly offer up the Pac 12 as a cheap product with unwanted time slots, groveling to switch kickoff times to whatever time a broadcaster will offer, you cheapen your product year after year. The stadiums get emptier, and who wants to watch a game on TV when it’s broadcast at remnant times with half-empty stadiums?

The west coast Pac-12 media markets are an absolute jewel. Viewers have disproportionately large discretionary incomes, large HD TVs yearning for content, workers at companies that are leading the world. I see companies like Alaska Airlines who get this and are making a killing serving these markets. So,  I don’t buy that Larry Scott has a tough position with a weak product; he has the conference with the most championships across all sports and weakens the conference’s brand and long-term prospects day after day with his endless short-term schemes.