ESPN: Pac-12 decides against 9 a.m. kickoffs this year

BleedGopher

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per ESPN:

The Pac-12 has decided not to move forward with any 9 a.m. PT kickoffs this season, but is open to revisiting the idea in the future, a conference spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Andrew Walker, the Pac-12's vice president for public affairs, said schools needed more time to plan for any potential earlier kickoff slot.

At Pac-12 media day last month, commissioner Larry Scott said the conference had held preliminary discussions about the potential for playing a couple of league games in that time slot as early as this season. Scott cited fan frustration with late-night kickoffs and the exposure for the Pac-12 in new markets as reasons to consider the change.

Several coaches, including UCLA's Chip Kelly, Utah's Kyle Whittingham and Cal's Justin Wilcox, all expressed an interest in playing an early game when the idea was raised last month.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27435417/pac-12-decides-9-kickoffs-year

Go Gophers!!
 

I'm a big proponent of early games and the 11am time slot, but 9am seems awful.
 

They should not be doing any early or late kickoffs. Screw the other markets. Do what’s best for the players and local fan base.

Not like the PAC had much TV value outside of alumni anyway. It just doesn’t, and that’s not going to change.
 

My ideal college football weekend starts with watching someone else play at 11am (that is plenty early), tailgaiting and eating lunch during that game, Gophers with the 2:30 game, celebrating and eating dinner watching the 5pm games, Capping the night off with 7pm and 9pm games from the West coast. Nothing better than finishing a day watching Arizona/ASU game at 10:30pm in a bar during college football season. They don't need to play 9am games (11am our time) plenty of teams on this side of the country to fill those TV slots.
 

Yeah, seemed pretty crazy and they no doubt heard from the fans.
 


Officials throughout college football and beyond are trying to think of ways to re-fill their gameday seats. Attendance has been a problem that has been getting worse in many spectator sports. As studies are commissioned and solutions are sought for these problems, two of the biggest reasons for attendance decline are the rise of high def TV's and comfortable home theaters from which to watch the games, and the "sellout" to make things better for TV at the expense of in-person fan experiences. As these problems become ever-more apparent, two leagues take bold action.

Big 10 - Hey, let's play Friday night games! Sure it conflicts with HS football and nobody wants to go to a college football game on a Friday night, but it will be great for TV!
PAC12 - Has anyone here ever thought of 9:00 AM games? It would kill the in-person fan experience, but it would be great for TV.
 

MAC has been playing weekday Tues and Wed games for years. Who doesn’t want to drive from their suburban Chicago home out to Dekalb on a cold, Tues night to watch the alma mater NIU play??
 

MAC has been playing weekday Tues and Wed games for years. Who doesn’t want to drive from their suburban Chicago home out to Dekalb on a cold, Tues night to watch the alma mater NIU play??

That's all about TV. The schools don't care how few people are in the stands.
 




If the idea is to get more eyes on the games, this idea seems to miss the mark. I would think the number of viewers they gain in the east by airing a Utah vs. Cal game at 9:00AM Pacific time would be off set ten-fold by the number of viewers they would lose on the west coast. Fans in SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 country already have many, many games to choose from in that time slot. They'd be better off looking at Thursdays or some other non-conventional time.
 
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I don’t understand why they wouldn’t try to focus on improving the distribution of their late-Saturday games. I’m much more likely to watch a Pac12 game that starts at 9PM or later (Central).
 




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