RE: PAC Expansion Strategy
The PAC definitely needs to look to the Central time zone. Take another shot at Texas. The idea to offer the package deal for the Oklahoma and Kansas schools is an interesting take.
If the PAC is unable to grab any Big 12 schools, Hawaii as a football-only member should be a back-up plan to consider.
1. Hawaii provides scheduling flexibility and opportunities for Week 0 games. With a few schools playing at Hawaii each year, the PAC could *own* Week 0 with 3 or 4 solid matchups - providing quality and distinct inventory which helps with media value.
2. A lot of PAC fan bases are weary from the late home kickoffs. Games that kickoff at 8:30 local time don't end until midnight or later. And, we're talking about less-committed fan bases to begin with. 10:30 pm ET is only 5:30pm Hawaii time. Hawaii could take some of the late kickoff burden from PAC teams, yet still provide decent PAC content for the media partners in the late-kickoff time slot.
3. Hawaii could be football only, which would justify a smaller payout.
4. The PAC can actually do better at landing Hawaii's top recruits. Over the last three recruiting classes, almost half of Hawaii's top-10 recruits have signed with schools outside of the PAC. 3 this year and 5 out of 10 for each of the previous 3 recruiting cycles. That's 18 of Hawaii's 40 best players the last 4 years that have signed elsewhere.
5. 12 teams with 9 conference games is great for playing cross-division conference mates frequently. However, it's horrible for win-loss records and rankings, especially when there is high parity. Most of your top teams all play each other such that even your better teams have more losses compared to conferences where, say, you have 14 teams with an 8-game schedule. It's hard to get the rankings when you go 7-2 in conference because you don't miss any of the good cross-division opponents.
For instance, the top 5 teams in the PAC 12 all played each other in 2018 regular season conference play - Washington, WSU, Utah, Stanford, and Oregon. The #6 team Arizona St. played 4 of the 5 teams ahead of them (missing only Wazzu). Of course, the PAC CCG was a rematch. Where would Utah have ranked if hadn't played Washington in the regular season, but instead had played Hawaii? They would have been 10-2 going into the CCG, possibly ranked *ahead* of Washington.
Meanwhile, in the Big Ten, Ohio St. only played Purdue (6-7), Minnesota (7-6), and Nebraska (4-8) in the cross division and missed Northwestern and Wisconsin. Northwestern didn't have to play either Ohio St. or Penn St. in cross-division play. That leads to better win-loss records for your top teams and the CCG was not a rematch.
In the SEC, the top 3 teams from the East - Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida - all avoided Alabama and either #2 Texas A&M or #3 LSU in conference play. The top 2 teams in the SEC West - Alabama and Texas A&M - both avoided Georgia. That leads to better win-loss records for your top teams and the CCG was not a rematch.
(This post was last modified: 01-04-2019 12:30 PM by YNot.)
|