Just spit-balling on this conference re-alignment topic. I understand that with 9 teams, we likely need to add at least 1 to keep the 9 game conference schedule. My 2 cents is San Diego State provides the best market and combination of men’s football and basketball programs.
That aside, our real problem is there are not quality additional markets to add in the pacific / mtn time zones. Combining with the ACC and its future left-overs is doing the same thing USC/UCLA are being criticized for, and would be tough on travel on a weekly basis.
So here’s my idea: lets focus instead on maximizing our reach into Asian markets with American football. There’s a reason NBA execs won’t criticize China. Its because they make a killing over there. So how can we get China / Japan / Korea etc to take notice of American college football. Here’s my idea:
1. We keep a 9 game schedule. 4 home, 4 away, and 1 conference neutral site game per year.
2. The neutral site games are played utilizing the bye week. This means you play on a Saturday, then play a neutral site game 10 days later on a Wednesday, then 11 days later on a Saturday again. Something like that.
3. All neutral site games are played in October in Asian cities. It would be 5 games, so I’m suggesting we play a game in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul every year with teams rotating. I chose those cities because they are also capitals of world financial markets, and fertile recruiting grounds for Pac-12 students.
4. We maximize interest by combining it with Academic efforts. Bring the whole freaking school. Sell Cal, sell Stanford, sell Utah (we have a Korea campus already right?). Make it a recruiting event and a game. Meet a Cal nobel laureate and watch a football game! Want to apply to Utah? Come to our game in Seoul and meet admissions staff!
5. Game time issues. Obviously the time of day in Asia is pretty awful for TV sets in America. 10 am Beijing, 11 AM Seoul/ Tokyo, is 8 pm Mtn, 7 pm Pacific. So the games – already midweek – must be held on holidays in Asian countries. Luckily China and Japan already have workers holidays in October that would line up nicely with a mid-season game. Oct 1 – 6th is a holiday in China, so the Hong Kong and Beijing games would be on the 4th. Japan has a national sports day holiday October 9th, for instance. Maybe that’s a good time. Korea has national holidays October 3rd and 9th. Maybe this isn’t the kind of thing that would go well on those holidays, but then again, it’d be such a unique spectacle you’d think its not hard to get some interest.
6. Market size. MSA’s in the PAC include PHX 5M, SF / OAK 4.5M, Seattle 4M, San Diego (if added) 3.2M, Portland 2.5M, SLC 1.7M. But look at these sizes in Asia. Again, the whole MSA, not just the city. Tokyo 41M, Shanghai 40M, Seoul 25M, Beijing 21M, Hong Kong 7M. If we could generate even a tiny bit of interest over there it could be huge.
We’re not going to make up ground on the SEC of B1G by doing it the way they are doing it. We have to get outside the box. Maybe this is a terrible idea, but I’d love to see them try it. Who would want to watch Stanford and Cal play the big game in the Bird’s Nest in Beijing?
Sorry for the long rant, I just really don’t want to have games in Waco, Stillwater, Lubbock, and Provo. I’m open to anything that will keep us away from that. Maybe Phil night can leverage his Nike China relationships and help this happen.
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