PAC 12 has a TV problem

Looking at the ratings so far this season the Pac 12 has a TV problem. They are not alone though. The ACC has the same issue while the Big XII’s woes will be their one game is leaving the conference. I know we hear everyone is tired of the SEC and Big 1G but ratings don’t support that. I get Oregon’s non-conf game is top 5 but there has to be a marquee game for the Pac 12 in the first half of the season that can crack the top 15, no?
Most watched CFB games so far:

  1. Georgia/Clemson 8.9 Million ABC
  2. Alabama/Texas A&M 8.3 CBS
  3. Alabama/Florida 7.8M CBS
  4. Notre Dame/Florida St 7.8M ABC
  5. Oregon/Ohio St 7.7M FOX
  6. Auburn/Penn St 7.6M ABC
  7. Penn St/Iowa 6.9M FOX
  8. Ohio St/Minnesota 6.3M FOX
  9. Oklahoma/Texas 5.9 Million ABC
  10. Alabama/Miami, FL 5.7M ABC
  11. Penn St/Wisconsin 5.4M FOX
  12. Notre Dame/Wisconsin 5.4M FOX
  13. Ole Miss/Alabama 4.8M CBS
  14. Washington/Michigan 4.7M ABC
  15. Michigan/Nebraska 4.6M ABC

Just a guess. But I think a lot of folks watch Bama hoping they will lose. The “pundits” sometimes play up a game saying that (team) has the capability to beat Bama. So people watch just in case. That happened when they played Ole Miss. And we saw what happened.

2 Likes

I’m sure this weekend’s game between the two top teams in the P12 South at 10pm ET should help the ratings. :wink:

6 Likes

the conference gets paid a premium for that late night time slot, so it is what it is

Whats frustrating to me is, all things considered, teh pac-12 network itself is a pretty high quality product. The distribution though…

8 Likes

Damn straight the PAC12 has a TV or at least viewership issue. IMO it has more to do with starting times for Central and Eastern time zones. I realize that going to a game on the West Coast at 5pm Pacific can be problematic for some, but an 8pm Eastern start time is damned nice. I do remember grumbling about an 8pm start when we lived in Utah, but it was ok while living there, not so much if you want eyeballs on screens.

IMO the PAC needs to get into earlier time slots if they want anyone east of Denver to watch the games. I don’t have a solution to the problem of the PAC forcing its way into replacing BIG XII or BIG in that timeslot.

3 Likes

I don’t know if that premium is worth losing eyeballs on screens, just my thought.

1 Like

They are just three games. I find it hard to believe Penn State v Iowa punt festival is more exciting than the P12. I get the love for night games but even the SEC puts the Marquee game at 2:30 local time. If the P12 did that it’s a 5:30 EST kick and right into prime time out East.

except having home games in Phoenix, Tucson or Los Angeles in the afternoon heat in Sept, early October is problematic. That’s 1/3 of the league that would be able to host that time slot for 1/2 the season.

Case and point this week…Utah kicks off against ASU at 10:00pm on the East Coast with control of the PAC-12 on the line. Even if Utah drops a giant ■■■■ hammer on the Scummies and wins the game, all that will happen is ASU will fall out of the rankings Sunday. They will vote the result…and nothing more.

Utah will not get any votes in the national polls for winning. They didn’t win any votes for walloping U$C…and they won’t get any votes for being undefeated in PAC-12 play.

Then again most of the PAC-12 only have maybe 2-3 games on their annual conference schedules with any sort of “rivalry” status. Add to it the fact no one sees the games except the Mountain and Pacific time zones, and you have one hell of a National image problem - even if the conference is the most competitive, across its membership, in the nation.

3 Likes

The PAC 12 Network certainly has issues…but you’re comparing them to games that appeared on the major over the air networks?

2 Likes

If Utah wins on Saturday they will get votes. I would think they’d be close to top 25.

There’s something substantial to this point - the all elusive ‘eye test’. And recency bias. Oregon (9 at the time) beats Ohio St. (6 at the time). Oregon goes to 4, Ohio St. to 9. Oregon loses to Stanford (middle team) and they drop to 8, just below Ohio St. (both 4-1). They are presumed out of CFB (even if they win out) while Ohio St. are starting to creep into CFB prognostications (and by then they will have played some really good teams to probably deserve it).

It’s just perpetuated that there are only ever 1, maybe 2 good PAC12 teams and any the others come and go in the 20-25 range. Of course, I do admit that our non-conference and post-season performance has not been good enough to warrant much more, but I do think that overall, ranking the results and not seeing the teams (eye test) win or loss hurts the league on average in rankings. Yes, we have issues to work through (retaining talent? coaching? 9-game conf schedule? Travel/away distances? who knows), but the late night games (CT/ET) certainly don’t help.

1 Like

Yeah, Sagarin has us at 30 and ASU at 19, so with a win, they’d likely fall out of rankings and we’d likely enter around 24/25 range. If we keep winning, probably hover in the teens (maybe low teens w/ Ore W, back to 20s with L). Have to take care of business each week. No gimmies (well, except AZ and CU - they really suck).

1 Like

Are you saying it’s worse in those cities compared to the Deep South? Literally feels like a wet hot towel is on your face down here and they are playing games.

I get this argument but why does the P12 have a 4-2 team vs a 2-3 team on Fox and not y’all?

Because Utah and ASU weren’t PAC8 and we should just be grateful to be part of it. West coast forever. ;). A division defining game or LA vs Seattle? Come on

Two points:

  • I don’t know how much say the commissioner has on who Fox or ESPN choose to air under the current TV contract.
  • I have stuff to get done during daylight hours so I love being able to watch Utah games after dark.

The math is pretty simple, the networks will air the games that they think will get the most viewership. I don’t blame them, and it doesn’t really bother me as long as the game I want to see is televised somewhere. Utah fans are used to this. Even when the Jazz are better, the networks televise far more games of the Lakers or Golden State. The only small market sports teams I can think of that buck this formula are the Green Bay Packers and Alabama…and it took both of them decades of success to reach that status.

3 Likes

Oh, I agree. UCLA/UW will have more eyeballs than ASU/Utah. It’s just how it is and yes, we are used to it.

1 Like

None. The contract spells out the order in which the networks select games.