On Monday, USC fans and Pac-12 football fans were stunned to learn that the huge game between the Trojans and the Oregon State Beavers would be shown on Pac-12 Network.
USC-Oregon State is a massive game. The winner takes a big step toward the Pac-12 Championship Game. The stakes are extremely high.
Arizona-Colorado and Arizona State-Cal are Pac-12 Network games. Low-visibility games should be on the low-visibility network. When USC plays on Pac-12 Network, it should be against a bad team such as Cal, not against a good team.
ESPN and Fox want to save their USC games for later in the season, but they’re doing so at the expense of this very important contest. The ultimate problem is that Pac-12 Network is not on DirecTV and is not on a regular (basic) cable tier. It’s not nearly as accessible or visible as SEC Network or Big Ten Network.
What makes this development especially infuriating: Bad games are on ESPN and Fox and other high-visibility national television outlets. Look at all the other matchups on ESPN, or ABC, or Fox, or other prime TV outlets. They’re not as good as Trojans-Beavers. Let’s take a look: