* The Pac-12 Hotline newsletter is published each Monday-Wednesday-Friday during the college sports season (and twice-a-week in the summer). This edition, from Nov. 28, has been made available in archived form …
Friday Night Lights (and eyeballs)
The Hotline’s crack research staff should have tracked how often the question has been raised this week, in advance of the Pac-12 Football Championship Game:
Who wins? Nah.
Why Friday? Ding-ding-ding.
Friday at 5 p.m. at Levi’s Stadium is clearly a poor combination of time and place for fans (local, or coming from out of town). Some believe it makes the conference look second-rate because the other Power Five championships are on Saturday.
Bottom line: It’s smart business for the folks paying the bills.
Slotting the Pac-12 game on Friday night makes loads of sense for the network partners because it’s a competition-free window and alleviates the glut of games on Saturday.
The eyeball evidence favors Friday over Saturday … and FOX over ESPN.
(Viewership figures taken from SportsMediaWatch; much of this data appeared on the Hotline last year.)
2012: Stanford 27, UCLA 24
Network: FOX
Day: Friday
TV audience: 3.0 rating/4.9 million homes
2013: Stanford 38, Arizona State 14
Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday
TV audience: 0.9 rating/1.45 million homes
2014: Oregon 51, Arizona 13
Network: FOX
Day: Friday
TV audience: 3.7 rating/6 million homes
2015: Stanford 41, USC 22
Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday
TV audience: 1.6 rating/2.6 million homes
2016: Washington 41, Colorado 10
Network: FOX
Day: Friday
TV audience: 3.4 rating/5.7 million homes
2017: USC 31, Stanford 28
Network: ESPN
Day: Friday
TV audience: 2.3 rating/3.7 million homes
Clearly, ESPN noticed how much better the Friday games performed and switched off its Saturday slot for the 2017 broadcast. That game didn’t draw as well as the FOX versions but nonetheless out-drew the Saturday broadcasts on ESPN in 2013 and 2015.
Overall:
• Four Friday games have averaged 5.1 million homes.
• Two Saturday games have averaged 2.0 million homes.
The Pac-12 long ago handed full control of its premium football programming to Fox and ESPN in a pure-and-simple, campus-directed cash grab. Playing the championship game on Friday just makes more sense for the networks doling out that cash. — Jon Wilner
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Hot off the Hotline
• The Pac-12 basketball results have been nothing short of gruesome in the past 10 days. It’s so bad that I left the No. 2 spot vacant in this week’s power ratings.
• An end-game that was months, if not years in the making became official Tuesday: AT&T has dropped the Pac-12 Networks from its U-verse service. Networks execs anticipated the move and undoubtedly prepared ahead for the financial impact, but it’s an indisputable blow on multiple levels and a bad look for commissioner Larry Scott’s brainchild.
• The playoff committee hit Washington State hard on Tuesday, dropping the Cougars below a slew of three-loss teams. What gives? The results give, as we explain in the latest bowl projections.
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State of Affairs
Perspective on the conference from beyond its borders …
• How did the Pac-12’s first-year coaches perform relative to expectations? CBS Sports columnist Barrett Sallee grades the five rookies (and all the other first-year coaches in the FBS, for that matter) … Gardner Minshew is fifth, and it’s a distant fifth, in the latest USA Today Heisman poll …The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel doesn’t expect Washington State to climb into the top 12 in the final committee rankings; he’s got the Cougars in the Alamo.
In the news
(Note: The Hotline newsletter includes links to sites that could require a subscription once the number of free views has been reached.)
• Is Khalil Tate leaving Arizona? It doesn’t appear that way at this point, despite reports to that effect.
• Justin Herbert’s injury is not believed to be serious.
• Utah needs to flip the script from its Week Three loss in order to beat Washington in the rematch.
• Expect the title game to have an old-school feel, with stout defense and punishing hits. (Can’t wait for this one, to be honest.)
• Good overview of UCLA’s season with a summary of personnel comings and goings for 2019.
• And here’s the USC version.
• Stanford used to be a model of consistency. It also used to play stellar defense and rely on the running game. That’s no longer the case, but an 8-4 season is within reach.
• To beat Stanford for the first time since 2009, Cal needs quarterback Chase Garbers to bounce back from a “slight bit of a dip” against Colorado.
• The Arizona Republic’s Greg Moore addresses draft-bound receiver N’Keal Harry’s looming decision to play, or skip, ASU’s bowl game.
• I’m on the Husky Headlines podcast with Adam Jude to talk about UW and the title game.
Coaching Carousel
• I expect Colorado to have a head coach in place by the end of next week. Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger offers six names to watch. Most will be familiar to Pac-12 fans.
• The purge is underway at USC, with offensive coordinator/recruiting dynamo Tee Martin among the ousted. Clancy Pendergast is staying on as defensive coordinator, contrary to reports Tuesday that he was gone.
On the Hardwood
• The NET Ratings, which have replaced the RPI in the March Madness evaluation process, were unveiled Monday by the NCAA with a colossal thud. I don’t care that it’s early, any system that ranks Loyola Marymount 10th and Kansas 11th has issues. The reaction was exactly as you might expect.
• Arizona coach Sean Miller spoke with a defiant tone when describing Arizona’s recruiting class, compiled against a backdrop of dark, scandalous clouds. “The effort to make that happen is unprecedented in my lifetime as a college basketball player or coach.”
Choice Reads
• The Oregonian’s John Canzano is publishing a multi-part examination of the Pac-12. The first installment examined the finances, specifically the staff salaries and cost of rent, and compared everything to the other Power Fives. The second part is a look at the top-down culture behind the officiating process. It’s valuable information and a must read for anyone with a stake in the present and future of the conference.
• Clay Helton needs a blowout recruiting season on two fronts: With high school prospects and with potential assistants. One name to consider, writes The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman in this insightful analysis of Helton’s twin tasks, is ex-Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Looking Ahead
What’s coming on the Pac-12 Hotline:
• We’re ramping up for a busy weekend with the championship game, Big Game and bowl selection day. The Hotline will be reacting to news and mixing in analysis as needed. Key point: The Pac-12 bowl announcements likely won’t come until Sunday afternoon — everything is on hold until the semifinal matchups and New Year’s Six unveiling.
• Before we get to that point, however, look for the weekly picks against the spread, coming in the next 48 hours.
The next newsletter is scheduled for Friday. Like it? Please forward this email to friends (sign up here). If you don’t, or have other feedback, let me know: pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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