USC Morning Buzz: Pac-12 Rarely Offers Big-Time Atmosphere

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Here’s my column on how you cannot really compare the Pac-12 to the SEC because of the often small and minor-league atmospheres everywhere. And I don’t exclude Los Angeles/Pasadena, just to be clear.

Excerpt: “Even if Washington State sells out Friday night’s game against fifth-ranked USC, there will still be fewer than 36,000 in the house . . . The point is the crowd makes it more difficult. It makes the home team play better. It causes false starts.”

Utah-Arizona last week drew 36,651, the Wildcats’ smallest crowd since 1997 and the second smallest since 1982. Is that a home-field advantage?

Full column here

27 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Pac-12 Rarely Offers Big-Time Atmosphere”

  1. This reality can’t be changed in any foreseeable future because it’d be like changing the whole cultures of the region. Folks on the West Coast, especially those living in urban areas, are able to find lots of other activities than just football, whereas football is like a religion in many areas of the South, Midwest regions and other rural areas. But who cares if our team could run the table in many a season, and beat those teams from the football crazy towns like we did so many times in the past? The truth is it’d be that much sweeter to do so.

  2. I’ll list em again, toughest place for visiting teams in Pac12, from first to worst:
    1 Autzen (most passionate fans)
    2 fusky stadium
    3 Rice Eccles (crowd/elevation)
    4 Folsom (elevation)
    5 Coliseum (when it’s full)
    6 Sun Devil Stadium
    7 Martin Stadium (when the cougs are doing well)
    8 Reser (when the bears are doing well)
    9 Rose Bowl (when its not half empty)
    10 Arizona Stadium
    11 California Memorial
    12 Stanford

  3. There are many one sided stadiums in high school football, where the home side has permanently installed seating and the visiting side has collapsible bleachers. So what’s the difference to these kids? They play on the field not in the stands.

  4. Any discussion on USC Asst Basketball Coach Tony Bland being implicated in FBI Corruption sting involving Adidas and several NCAA Institutions?

    • I heard about this earlier. Why would Bland be involved with Addidas when USC is a Nike school?

  5. I don’t like this narrative, because it is a pre-emptive narrative. It rules out any degree of difficulty in just taking 18-21 year olds on the road in general (away from classes, the familiar, facing hostility whether small or large, etc). It gives SW the weak counter-hypothesis for SC victory each week, and it is just tired. Most teams lose on the road, especially in-conference. Teams know your tendencies, fans know your name. There are no direct filights to Pullman, Colorado is in thin air, ASU and UA play in 110 degree heat, Autzen was built specifically to amplify sound, etc etc.

    This story line also weights the BS SEC narrative, which is by design from the ADs in that conference. It is well known they all play ONE meaningful OOC game, generally at a neutral site, and generally closer to SEC country than anywhere else. The other three games are generally home games against sub-division opponents. If they win their opening season “bowl game” it is almost guaranteed that they will be able to carry an inflated OOC record, and constantly point to that one game they played against a quality opponent.

    I live in Big 10 country, and the stadiums are way bigger here than anywhere else. Towns like Ann Arbor, Happy Valley, Iowa City, and Columbus shut down on game day. But 80% of these towns, like about 80% of the SEC towns are college towns. On the one hand the fans do prepare for the games days in advance, because they are the only thing going on. for 100 miles in terms of popular events. But the difference between noise of 50,000 fans and 80,000 fans is not earth-shattering. It’s difficult, but these teams do it year in and year out. They know it’s coming. The elite teams prepare for it. And by the way the SEC is lousy this year, outside of Bama.

    • On the second paragraph above, does anyone remember the year (I think it is 2007) that SC had the same record as Florida at the end of the year, but Florida went because their loss (against f-ing Kentucky) was deemed more difficult than SC’s freak loss to the Harbaugh-coached Stanford team? Historically speaking, what was the tougher game? I hate hate hate this aspect of college football. The eye test. SW love it apparently.

      • It was the 2008 season, and Florida lost at home to unranked Ole Miss. USC lost on the road to a ranked Oregon State team. It was all engineered for little Timmy Tebow and Florida to play against a weak Oklahoma team, who got beat by ten by Texas. The BCS knew that either Texas or USC would kick the hell out of Florida, and since the BCS title game was in the Orange Bowl, they couldn’t let that happen.

        • Thank you SCgrad12, that’s right! I was too lazy to look it up. The 2008 team had the best defense I’ve ever watched at SC. Was so hoping to see that defense play Tebow. Carroll’s track record in bowl prep is one of the best of all time. Sour grapes. But SW would point out that all Florida’s victories were more challenging. Traveling to Corvalis for a Thursday game against Mike Riley (remember when SW used to make snarky comments about SC missing out on hiring him?) is like a breezy jog through Northwest park.

  6. What else do you do is the south on a weekend in the fall ? It’s what they live for.

  7. Well I was at the Arizona-Utah game and it was poorly attended (probably about 2/3 full at kickoff). Most attributed it to being a Friday night game which made getting there and parking both a huge issue. Plus AZ sucks these days.

    The picture shown looks like it is from last year’s USC-AZ game late in the 4th qtr with USC up 48-14 and most of the fans had long since left, so that is hardly an accurate depiction.

    Also even if WSU only seats 30K, it’s still a tough place to play, especially if the weather is bad — you’re not going to have that kind of weather at most SEC stadiums.

  8. I agree with Regal Trojan about being in a region where there is so much to do unlike some small college town in the mid-west or the South where football is the only thing in town.
    But it goes a little further than that. If the PAC-12 Universities would support their football programs more, you would see an upgrade in the level of competition per school in the way of better coaches, better facilities and marketing. To many PAC-12 schools, football is a necessary evil where mediocrity is accepted and keeps the TV money coming in. Nothing more..

    • Please do confirm which schools consider football to be “a necessary evil”. That’s BS, of course, but as long as you’re shooting blanks, go ahead a empty the chamber.

      The more accurate way to look at Pac-12 football is that NOWHERE is it considered a religion. NOWHERE are fans stupidly obsessed with it (ok…may Oregon). It is a sport in the PAC, and unlike the SEC plantations, it’s still a real college sport. I enjoy going to PAC-12 games precisely because they are nothing like what they are in the NFL-wannabe SEC.

      • CAL, OSU, WSU, Ariz, UCLA, ASU have mediocre programs in football. Never pushed to win championships as a rule, satisfied to just field a team. With your explanation about what you enjoy in watching a college football game explains you are satisfied with anything that shows up on the field whether it is good or mediocre. The fact that other schools routinely beat up on mediocrity wouldn’t seem to bother you too much. For some, including me, I don’t go to a game just to be entertained. I want my team to win every time.

  10. Is there an argument over this? Or is Wolf creating news on his own. Who cares how many howling idiots attend SEC games.

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