“…the PAC 12 remains its own worst enemy.”

[Anonymous]

FWIW.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-monday-after-just-like-in-years-past-the-pac-12-remains-its-own-worst-enemy/

[Thlete]

And yet I’d rather watch any PAC-12 matchup instead of Bama destroying yet another team by 30+ points every time. Playoffs need to auto invite all P5 and distribute same funds instead of incentivizing easy schedules with no losses and rewarding top heavy conferences over and over. 

[Utah]

Easy fix:

you must play 10+ P5 games a year, not counting your Conference Champ Game. 

No bye/FCS/G5 opponents after the second week in October. 

Thise two rules would fix most problems. 

[Stone]

I agree these are very do-able fixes, but I think an even easier fix would be to have an 8 team playoff, with an autobid for every P5 champion. A league should not be punished merely because it has greater parity; doing so creates perverse incentives for a conference to favor a single team (or two). Indeed, such perverse incentives may be why Wazzu lost to USC.

I will say this, for anyone that saw the end of the Kentucky v Missouri game on Saturday, Missouri got hosed by the zebras. Game should have ended with a Kentucky incomplete pass and a Missouri win. Instead, a phantom PI was called and Kentucky scored on an unclocked play. I am not generally a conspiracty theorist, but you gotta wonder what sort of incentives there are to make sure that the top teams don’t get upset by a bottom dweller.

 

[eyesonU]

Same thing happened at the end of the Iowa v Penn St. game.  What would have normally been ruled a catch for a first down was ruled incomplete on the final drive for Iowa, essentially ending the game. 

Refs miss calls, they are human after all.  But with the access they now have to review plays to make sure they get it right, when they still get it wrong it kinda makes you go hmmmm.

[Utah]

I think the PAC-12 Network issue is overblown. It’s not that big of a deal 

What IS a big deal is that the PAC-12’s scheduling sucks. 

That the PAC-12’s best team has two losses due to s**tty refs and bad calls (Utah). 

What happens if the Covey PR penalty isn’t called and the INT isn’t taken away from Barton?

Utah has 0 or 1 loss, is top 10 and has a clear path to the playoffs. 

What is a big deal is allowing USC to play Stanford and ND every year. 

And so on. 

[Anonymous]

California power center is the boon and bane of the PAC12. 

Their insistence on playing each other every year and screwing up the rotation, ultimately necessitating the unbalanced nine game schedule. 

Their presidents insisting on the network giving equal time to non revenue, low interest sports. 

Their interference with the conference offices operating the biggest revenue sport. All this review nonsense is because they want the playing field tilted in their favor. 

Without California, we’re the WAC. With California we’re all subject to their idiotic whims. 

Infuriating. 

[Utah]

Honestly, be glad they are so obtuse. It’s good for Utah. Bad for the PAC-12, but good for Utah. 

USC struggles because of their schedule and insistence on playing California schools every year. It makes Utah’s schedule easier. 

Utah’s schedule next year is as easy as it has ever been. And we return almost everybody. 

I hope they don’t change. The perception of the PAC-12 may go down, but Utah’s perception is rising and rising fast. 

[Anonymous]

That’s exactly my point. The shoot their own feet with their rectitude (false, I believe), and cost everybody money. But where would we be without them?

[Anonymous]

It used to be that I couldn’t imagine anything better than being in the PAC12. After nearly a decade in this conference, gotta say, if the BigXII came calling, my vote would be to listen. I dunno. So frustrating dealing with ideologues when all you want to do is win football games. 

[Utah]

As a selfish fan, screw the Big 12. And you thought being a conference mate with BYU was bad? Texas is 100 times worse. 

There is a TON of good about the PAC-12. They stick together. Equal revenue sharing. Better cities to play in. 

And the bad about the PAC-12 helps Utah. It would take a lot to leave. Like, USC left and the PAC-12 was kicked out of the playoff. 

Also, the money issue is overblown. It would be nice to have SEC money, but we aren’t in the SEC. As long as we keep pace with PAC-12 teams we are good. We just need to win the PAC-12 with 0 or 1 loss. In some ways, having less money hurts USC more, which helps us. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I know. It’s just that I’d like for those California schools to pull the stick out of their collective asses once in a while. 

[EagleMountainUte]

California is insane but by far better travel destinations. Also being a Texas bitch is terrible. Ask Colorado how that feels. Utah is a west coast type school it fits and I don’t want much to change.

I just feel 9 conference games carries more weight than 8 and scheduling powder puff schools and one big OOC. If all schools switched to 9 I would be fine with that. 

[EagleMountainUte]

Berkeley really is the worst. Most insane thoughts are coming out of that school ruining this country. 

[Anonymous]

UCLA is just as bad. Stanford’s apathy. USC and their sense of entitlement. Infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Step 1: Log out of Ute Hub. Step 2: Learn English. Step 3: Whine about politics on another forum.

[EagleMountainUte]

Meh

[sweetgrass]

ESPN and Fox had the top 2 choices and opted for the markets/games that featured LA and AZ, Seattle and Bay area vs. Pullman and Palo Alto. PAC-12 has its flaws, but not sure how last Sat’s game between Furd and Wazzu was their fault?

[PlainsUte]

Its a Chicken and Egg problem.  If you only have the dregs of the conference contests on the Network, the cable systems (and DirectTV) won’t pick it up.  That said, at this point it is more of an issue that the Pac-12 is not getting enough East Coast exposure and they are also not winning enough out of conference big match-ups and bowl games to create demand and relevance for Fox and ESPN.  Utah excepted on the bowl issue, of course.

[Stone]

Yes, Pac12 has not done well on nonconference this year. Imagine if USC had beat Texas and Stanford had beat Notre Dame. Those two wins would have gone a long way for the conference. At this point, the marquee win of the year appears to be ASU over Michigan State… and that is not all that great of a win.

[Warrior Ute]

Our wins may not be impressive but I was looking at Massey’s composite rating. The place Utah is ranked the highest is Weighed Win Paths. WWP

This takes and crunches numbers of who you beat and who they beat and creates an overall profile. In this rating, Utah comes in at 3, WSU is 2.

Looking at the top ten by conference, ND is number one,  PAC 12 – 4 teams, SEC – 2 teams (Alabama is not in the top 10 but 16th), B10, B12, and ACC all have 1 team. I think that the difficulty level of playing in the PAC 12 is well demonstrated here, but missed by many other rankings. This is one of the major challenges of our confence. The level of parity and difficulty of playing through that parity impacts our W-L records which overcome all common sense when looking at the 4 best teams at the end of the year.

I agree that we need a new system that creates a balancing of the scheduling or a true path (8 team playoff) for all P5 conferences to be represented in the playoffs.

[bopahull]

To be fair to all div 1 football conferences a 16 team playoff would allow for all conference champions to play for a title. that would become bigger money maker than march madness.

[Utah]

You can’t let G5 schools in a playoff. Football is too violent of a sport. It wouldn’t be fair to let an undefeated UCF in, who plays nobody, and keep a 2 or 3 loss P5 school out, who would go undefeated with UCF’s schedule. 

I think an 8 game playoff, 5 P5 champs and three at larges in the way to go. That allows ND, 2 SEC, every champ and one more team. Everyone wins. 

[bopahull]

Why can’t you let G5 schools into the playoffs? I for one would have loved to see the 2004 Utes play the big boys, just to see how good they were. Every once in awhile you just might have a G5 that is deserving of the opportunity.

[EagleMountainUte]

We are snots now the P5 schedule deserves more when you compete with schools like Utah has now. Eyes are open they are at the table and I could care less about lower G5 schools not named USU. 

[gothamute]

I’ve always thought the best solution was 8 team playoff with each P5 champ, highest rates G5 champ plus two at-large (with indy like ND automatically in if ranked in top 8, leaving at least one true at large). Don’t see how anybody can argue with that composition.

[Utah]

“deserving of the opportunity”. 

Show me how Utah “deserved” to be in over Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Alabama or USC in 2008. 

Or how they had proven more than USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, Texas, or Cal in 2004. 

That’s the problem. No matter what a G5 does, it will have proven NOTHING 20 other teams could have done, and that is go undefeated vs a bad schedule. 

The has never been a G5 left out who “deserved” to be in. 

[UTE98]

Pot meet kettle – CBSSN calling out the P12Network.