The annual Stanford-Cal football game will take place on Oct. 20 next season, marking the "first time the Big Game will have been played in October and only the fifth time it has not been staged in November," according to John Crumpacker of the S.F. CHRONICLE. When the Pac-12 Conference yesterday released its '12 football schedule, the Oct. 20 date of Stanford at Cal "stood out." The decision was made after a "majority vote among the conference's athletic directors, with Cal's Sandy Barbour and Stanford's Bob Bowlsby voting nay." Bowlsby said Oct. 20 was "certainly" not Stanford's first choice, but "the conference is governed by the will of the majority, and we have a duty to respect the outcome of the vote." Barbour said that she and Bowlsby "expressed their preference for the Big Game being played on Nov. 17, but the majority of the conference's athletic directors voted for Oct. 20." Commissioner Larry Scott "explained that the Pac-12 Championship game scheduled for Nov. 30 and priorities related to the conference's new television agreement starting in 2012 'mean occasional date adjustments to rivalry games'" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/5). USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz writes, "For those in other parts of the country, imagine Army-Navy, Ohio State-Michigan, Auburn-Alabama or Harvard-Yale being played on Oct. 20." Cal and Stanford "did not want to play the game the week of Thanksgiving because they hold numerous Big Game-associated events during the week leading up to the contest" (USA TODAY, 1/5).
FORGETTING TRADITION? In San Jose, Mark Purdy notes the game "has always been played in mid-to-late November with alums from both institutions turning it into a social event as well as an athletic competition." As a tradition, it has been "sort of an exclamation point to the regular season." This year, "thanks to the Pacific 12 Conference's master rescheduling plan to maximize television money, the exclamation point will be more of a semicolon." Purdy writes, "I don't blame Scott for that. I blame the conference presidents who hired Scott and ordered him to amp up the conference's athletic revenues, tradition or kickoff times be damned." Yesterday's Cal-Stanford schedule announcement "must have spawned much blowback, however, because there were subsequent explanatory statements from Stanford, Cal and the conference office itself." The schools said that they "really, really, really hated the new setup." However, they "went along with the majority of Pac-12 members, who voted for the master schedule based on TV requirements." Barbour said she was disappointed because "college football is unique, in large part, because of traditions like the Big Game." Purdy: "All very eloquent. But here is what Stanford and Cal administrators aren't saying: They could have avoided this situation by caring less about the overall financial windfall during last year's expansion/television negotiations" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 1/5). Jazz play-by-play announcer David Locke wrote on his Twitter feed, "The #Pac12 moving one of the great rivalries in college football Stanford v. cal to October 20th is an inexcusable travesty." KNBR-AM's Brian Murphy wrote, "It's Larry Scott's world. We're just livin' in it."
MASTER SCHEDULE: In Seattle, Bud Withers writes the Pac-12's composite football schedule "reeks of all the forward thinking commissioner Larry Scott has embraced in every area of marketing the league." Withers: "Thanks to the Pac-12 Networks due to start up in August, every game will be televised someplace." But the "fact 34 of them will be on the Pac-12 Networks -- with a total of 44 divided by ESPN properties and Fox -- shows the impact the Networks will have on the league and its fans." There is a "total of nine Thursday and Friday games -- another step taken by the Scott regime -- with eight targeted for the ESPN/Fox distribution" (SEATTLE TIMES, 1/5).
