The Pac-12 is under contract to hold its conference championship game at Levi's Stadium through '19, but Commissioner Larry Scott said that he will "evaluate options" for '20 and beyond, according to Jon Wilner of the San Jose MERCURY NEWS. Two "potential options" are the new NFL stadiums in L.A. and Las Vegas. Scott noted that there were "encouraging results from the pilot program to shorten the length of games, with duration dropping from 3:19 to 3:14." Meanwhile, he said it was “unacceptable” for the start of Friday night games to get moved from FS1 to FS2 because of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. He said that he has "spoken to Fox Sports executives about the matter and will look in the offseason" for '18 alternatives (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 12/3). Scott said, "I was very, very disappointed in what happened and raised it with the president of Fox. I don't think a Pac-12 football game should ever be delayed for a truck race, and I think we should have better options." He added, "What I want to make sure is that we have strong alternatives and overflow channels where fans can go that have similar distribution to the main channel they'd be watching it on. FS2, unfortunately at this point, doesn't have near the distribution that FOX or FS1 has. So we've told FOX that's not acceptable from our point of view, and we're going to be talking to them in the off-season about other alternatives for next season"(ASAPSPORTS.com, 12/1).
DALLAS DEBUT: In Oklahoma City, Berry Tramel noted Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby praised the atmosphere at AT&T Stadium for the conference's first championship game since '10. Bowlsby before the game projected around 55,000 fans would be "in the stands and about 7,000 in the suites." He said, "Both schools have done a good job. The Cotton Bowl group has done a good job. They were the principal sales organization. For the first year, we're happy with it." Bowlsby said of potentially playing the championship game on a Friday in the future, "We're always going to work with our TV partners on (possibly playing Friday night)." But he added he thought "there were a lot of eyes watching" the game Saturday night. Bowlsby: "There's no doubt it's a harder day to travel. I like Saturday. My preference is Saturday. We haven't etched anything in stone that would necessitate that it's Saturday every year." Bowlsby said of AT&T Stadium, "This is as good as any venue in the world, and we're lucky to have it here in Dallas. The Cowboys organization and the Cotton Bowl organizations have been absolutely phenomenal to work with. They've really taken a lot of pride in it. ... We were intentional in putting it here for five years. We wanted to put down some roots. Not to say we won't ever move it. But we want it to be someplace that's centrally located, that has a great venue, that's easy for our fans to get to and that is a special place to compete" (OKLAHOMAN, 12/3).
PARTY DOWN SOUTH: ACC Commissioner John Swofford said of holding the football championship game in Charlotte, "We’ve had so much success there, I can’t imagine us having any real interest in moving it." In reference to moving last year's game to Orlando because of North Carolina's controversial HB2, Swofford said, "The political arena is not somewhere we have any desire to be." Swofford said of the CFP potentially expanding, "The presidents, who ultimately make that decision, have no interest in taking it to eight. I don’t think we’ll see that anytime soon." Swofford said of how long he would like to work as commissioner, "I really enjoy what I do. I still enjoy it. I’m blessed with good health right now and plenty of energy. So I don’t know" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 12/2).
