No, you can’t play Pac-12 football on Sundays. You just can’t go up against The Shield and get reasonable television ratings. We get it. It makes sense. It’s entirely understandable to think this way.
Yet, the Pac-12 is not in a position where it can simply play games in the time slots everyone is accustomed to, and simply stand pat. We know the Pac-12 has to create standalone games when no other college football games are going on. The Pac-12 has to differentiate its product from other conferences, in order to showcase its teams but also to offer prospective broadcasters a more exclusive and visible product. The Pac-12 won’t get top dollar, but it can certainly get more dollars with standalone programming.
Going up against the NFL might seem foolish, but let’s modify that conversation: The Pac-12 shouldn’t go up against the NFL all the time. It can and should, however, pick its spots and be selective. Let’s examine how that can happen, based on the 2023 NFL schedule, which was released on Thursday: