Pac-10 falls even further behind

A must read column from Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Excerpt:

I was still getting calls late Monday night about the SEC’s staggering 15-year deal with ESPN that will reportedly pay the league about $2.25 billion. That deal, coupled with the 15-year deal the SEC has signed with CBS will give the league financial security for a long, long time.

In addition to the SEC, the Big Ten and Big XII have pretty impressive TV deals in place. Meanwhile, the silence from the Pac-10 office is deafening.

Tom Hansen is an idiot, part 573

In yet another example of the conference commissioner's ineptitude, it's now Monday morning and there is still no official announcement as to whether ASU/Oregon will be on ABC at 12:30 PT instead of UCLA/au.

How was this decision not made and announced yesterday? Hansen wakes up Sunday morning as commissioner of the conference with the biggest game of the year to date coming up. He should have been on the phone with all the relevant parties and had an announcement by Noon Sunday.

I'm pretty certain we'll hear today that the change has been made, but as of right now, the game is still scheduled to be televised in Oregon and Arizona only.

Updated 10/30: The game will be televised nationally on ESPN (with local coverage in Arizona, Oregon and SoCal). Announcement was made 39 hours after the end of the ASU/Cal game. Presumably, Hansen slept through Sunday and woke up Monday lunchtime to make a few calls.

Updated 11/3: for those of you interested in such matters, the Register-Guard has a good article about the politics behind these negotiations.

ESPN to televise the Territorial Cup

ESPN announced some more of the early selections for televised games, and the schedule includes the Sun Devils hosting au on Staurday, December 1st in primetime, either on ESPN or ESPN2.

Remember, this game was moved from it's traditional Thanksgiving weekend slot so that ESPN could televise the ASU/USC game on Thanksgiving day, so the Sun Devils will now be on nationally televised primetime games two weeks in a row.

Night games: nothing has really changed

Yesterday's announcement by ASU that the first four games of the season will kickoff at 7p.m. has been greeted by some as evidence of a change in policy by the Athletic Department.

Don't be fooled. Nothing has really changed.

These games are all in September, and ASU has for many years now kept September games at night. The notable exception was last season's game versus Oregon, although that was played on the last day of the month. Prior to that, the last home game in September to kickoff prior to 7p.m. that this writer can recall was the Oregon game in 1996, a week after the epic win over Nebraska.

The real issue with day games has always been, and continues to be, games played in October. The Notre Dame game in 1998 was played on October 10 when it was still brutally hot. I clearly remember many people leaving at half time due to the heat, and a good friend had to spend the second half in the concourses to get out of the sun.

I must admit to being of split opinion when it comes to day games. On one hand, the additional exposure of having the game televised is good for the program, and one could argue that the heat is only a factor when the Devils are getting killed (the USC game in 1996 was a 12:30p.m. kickoff yet no one left that game complaining about the heat!).

However, there is something magical about Sun Devil Stadium at night. There is a buzz that just doesn't exist during day games. One of the greatest atmospheres I can recall was the game in 1997 versus Ryan Leaf and his unbeaten Washington State team. That game was played at night on November 1.

Regardless of the month, I believe the Athletic Department should do everything in its power to keep ALL home games at night, even the late season games. I am still not clear (and would love an official explanation) as to whether ASU can actually refuse to move a Pac-10 game for TV. The real test this year will be the two October home games versus Washington (13th) and Cal (27th).

Turkey day football at Sun Devil Stadium

Despite my earlier prediction that it may be several months before the Pac-10 schedule is finalized, the conference actually announced the 2007 lineup a full eight months in advance.

This rare display of proactive behavior from the conference office doesn't change my opinion that Tom Hansen needs to go, but it's nice to see the conference, and ASU in particular, get a prime timeslot on Thanksgiving evening.

The ASU press release makes a couple of dubious claims. First, it asserts that "ASU will enjoy a national stage alone on Thanksgiving evening at 6 p.m." which is true only if you count college football. There will be an NFL game starting at the exact same time, although I guess you could argue that the NFL Network isn't exactly on the national stage.

The second claim that caused me to raise an eyebrow is: "ASU asked for (and received) an evening kickoff time for that date so that fans could have the opportunity for a traditional Thanksgiving meal and then attend the game." Hmmmm, methinks that ESPN had no interest in starting the game at any time other than 8p.m. Eastern, in order to avoid competing with the NFL games on CBS and Fox.

Anyway, exaggerated claims aside, this is good news for the program. A national TV audience is never a bad thing, and it spreads out the last five games of the season. Let's just hope that ESPN doesn't unleash its dreaded Full Circle coverage on us.

It's also worth noting that Oregon's game at au was moved to Thursday, November 15 so the rats will have 16 days to prepare for their defeat at the hands of the good guys.

Possible changes to the 2007 football schedule

According to the Trib's ASU football notebook, the ASU/USC game at Sun Devil Stadium, currently scheduled for November 17, could be moved to Thanksgiving, pushing the au game back to December 1.

I'd be all in favor of this move. We already know that the last five weeks of the schedule are brutal (Cal, @Oregon, @UCLA, USC, au) so adding a bye week could only help. Plus, the TV exposure would be significant.

According to a few posts on various message boards, there is some confusion as to whether the proposal is to move the game to Thanksgiving Day itself, or to the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Either would be OK from my perspective.

Keep in mind that in 2007 Pac-10 games will be split between ABC, Fox Sports Net and ESPN, so expect the conference to move several games to non-traditional slots.

Typically the pre-season selections for TV games are announced in May/June, so it may be several months before anything is confirmed.