Conference Of Champions

There were two conferences that held their championship games on Friday night: The Pac-12 and the MAC. The Pac-12 drew 47,118 fans. The MAC drew 45,615. Is it any wonder DirecTV could care less about the Pac-12 Network?

18 thoughts on “Conference Of Champions

  1. Our apples to oranges comparison of the day from Wolfie. Picking up on last week’s selection, does anyone think Wolfie noticed what a disaster of a coaching performance Mike MacIntyre turned in on Friday? Dude kept throwing the injured Sefo Liufau out there despite it being obvious to everyone with eyeballs that he was a liability in his injured state. And he let Washington sit on the ball with 42 seconds left in the first half instead of calling one of his two timeouts and forcing the Huskies to punt (never know what can happen, and CU would be left with one timeout). It’s been a while since Clay Helton made these kind of mistakes.

  2. Western Michigan, which is in Kalamazoo, played in Detroit. Maybe a 2.5 hour drive. Most of the fans were WMU fans. Plus Athens, OH (Ohio U) is only a four-hour drive away.

    Seattle (UW) is a 14-hour drive to Santa Clara, traversing an ancient volcanic ridge that hems in bad weather. Boulder is a 20-hour drive away, across two mountain ranges and the continental divide. That could have something to do with it.

    In the far flung Pac 12, where the distance between schools can stretch over 1500 miles, makes sense, for attendance purposes, to schedule conference game at school with best record until the new Raiders stadium opens in Vegas. Flying into SFO or OAK sux, hotels are expensive on short notice. Vegas is easy to fly into from just about anywhere, and its easy to find a cheap hotel room on short notice.

    • Save for the Bay Area you can say that every year – the distance issue. In fact the proximity of LA to the Bay Area is a real statement of indifference in terms of attending the Pac-12 CCG.

      Lower division schools usually have a much more motivated fan base esp. if they haven’t been in the ‘money’ in a while. Contrast that with the WA and CO fans – WA not since what 2000? CO never and yet a lousy turn out.

      You’re definitely right about one thing – the location (Levi – Bay Area) is not an easy place to get around in and an open air stadium (unlike the Big 10, MAC, ACC,) is a real downer in early December and that is one major reason for ‘no shows’.

    • Please don’t question Mr Wolf’s goal of making USC great again. (cough cough)
      #softsadman

  3. ” Is it any wonder DirecTV could care less about the Pac-12 Network?”

    I believe the word you’re looking for is “couldn’t”.

  4. Conference title games are over kill … you can get tickets to SEC and Big 10 for 12 bucks

  5. OFF TOPIC–Nice win for Barkley yesterday. Not all pro quality but an NFL win is win none the less.

  6. Yes the Conference of NCAA Champions USC in Women’s Soccer and Cal in Men’s Water Polo

  7. Pretty sure that number would have been significantly higher if USC was in the game.

  8. As others have noted this is a stupid comparison. Also, avg. MAC Championship game attendance prior to this year has been around 15,000. This year there were some extraordinary circumstances with W. Michigan.

  9. I think this year has revealed to us that these made-for-tv conferences, split randomly into 2 divisions, produce lackluster conference championship games. They mean nothing, except to put one more game on the schedule. Both Wisconsin and Penn State were counted out of the running for the playoffs going into their game. That’s confounding. Alabama beating a mediocre Florida?! So what? UW strangling a so-so Colorado team?! So what? Clemson surviving a nobody V-Tech?! SO WHAT???

    The bloated 2-division conferences haven’t done a single positive thing for CFB.

  10. Maybe it is the teams, and their fans do not travel well…what was the TV rating is the question…correct?

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