Conference moving future football title games to Las Vegas
The Pac-12 Conference will move its football championship game to Las Vegas in 2020.
During Pac-12 media day in Hollywood, Calif., on Wednesday, commissioner Larry Scott announced the change of venue for the title game, which has been played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., since 2014.
This season will be the sixth in a row that the title game will be held at the home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. From 2011-13, the game was held in campus stadiums.
The Pac-12 has entered an agreement to play the 2020 and 2021 championship games at Las Vegas Stadium, the new venue being built for NFL’s Raiders, who are expected to move from Oakland next year.
Beginning in 2020, the Raiders’ new stadium will also host the Las Vegas Bowl, which will become one of the top bowls in the Pac-12 lineup. It has been a lower-tier bowl featuring the Pac-12 vs. the Mountain West. Starting in 2020, it will feature the No. 2 or 3 Pac-12 team against the Big Ten or SEC. It’s the first time the Pac-12 has had a bowl partnership with the SEC.
Also on Wednesday, the Pac-12 announced the addition of the new Los Angeles Bowl to its postseason lineup for the 2020-25 seasons. The bowl, which debuts in 2020, will be played at LA Stadium at Hollywood Park, which is currently under construction as the new home of the NFL’s Chargers and Rams.
The Los Angeles Bowl will feature the Pac-12 versus a team from the first pick from the Mountain West, unless that team is in the College Football Playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl.
Notes:
This year’s Pac-12 championship game will be broadcast on ABC-TV for the first time. The previous eight title games have rotated between Fox and ESPN. … Fox and ESPN will broadcast a combined 44 Pac-12 football games this year, while the Pac-12 Networks will air 35 games. … Scott said the Pac-12 has no plans to move away from its model of nine conference games. Several other conferences have eight. The Pac-12 is becoming more flexible, however, in allowing late-season non-conference games, as opposed to front-loading the schedule with those games.