Conference championship game will be making a move in 2020
Commissioner Larry Scott provided a barrage of news Wednesday during his state-ofthe-conference address at Pac12 football media day, with the future of the championship game atop the list.
As expected, the game will move to the Raiders’ new stadium in Las Vegas for the 2020 and 2021 seasons following the event’s final turn at Levi’s Stadium this December. Scott provided no information beyond that two-year window.
This is the right move, the only move.
Just as the men’s basketball tournament was energized by the switch from Staples Center in Los Angeles to TMobile Arena in Las Vegas, so too will the football championship game benefit from the move to Sin City.
It puts the event on a big stage in a destination city.
The next step for the conference — in the Hotline’s view — is to turn the game into an anchor for a larger sporting weekend in Las Vegas, perhaps tied to a men’s basketball doubleheader.
NEW BOWL >> Scott did announce the conference will be adding a new bowl game to
its postseason lineup beginning in 2020. The Los Angeles Bowl will feature a matchup between teams from the Pac-12 and Mountain West in the new NFL stadium under construction in the LA area. The Pac-12’s commitment to the game runs through 2025.
EARLY KICKOFFS >> The conference may try a new scheduling approach this season. Scott said Fox and conference athletic directors are in preliminary talks about morning kickoffs for some games, which would put them in the network’s key noon Eastern timeslot.
Any morning kickoffs, which would be at 9 a.m. Pacific and 10 a.m. Mountain, would be voluntary and not dictated by Fox.
“That would be new and somewhat out of the box, but I’ve tried to put everything on the table,” Scott
said. “I think there are some schools and markets that might respond positively.”
“All the studies we’ve all read and conducted ourselves on our campus, our sleep studies, it is better for young people to perform athletically if they get a full night’s sleep,” Stanford’s David Shaw said. “And I don’t know that you can find any group of 18- to 22-yearold young people that are going to go to bed at 10 o’clock at night to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning to make sure they can perform athletically.”
UTAH IS FAVORED >> Utah will face pressure unlike coach Kyle Whittngham’s program has experienced in its nine seasons in the Pac-12. The Utes were the narrow choice to win the 2019 conference championship in the annual preseason media poll released Wednesday, edging Oregon and Washington.
According to the conference, the media has accurately picked the Pac-12 champion in just four of
the past 12 years.
The Utes were the overwhelming favorite in the South division and received 12 votes to win the Pac-12 title game, one more than Oregon and three more than Washington. The Ducks were picked to win the North over the Huskies.
In addition, the Pac-12 unveiled its inaugural preseason all-conference team
Wednesday morning.
One player, Colorado receiver Laviska Shenault, was a unanimous selection.
• Scott added that there is no movement within the conference to drop to eight conference games but that teams will likely start scheduling nonconference games in November and the conference smartly moves to allow more flexibility in the scheduling.
OFFICIATING RULES >> Scott also provided a summary of the external review of Pac-12 football officiating.
Sibson Consulting’s examination determined that the conference’s officiating process was “fundamentally sound.” But Scott said all recommendations would be adopted, including:
• The head of officiating to report directly to the Commissioner rather than the football administrator;
• Adoption of a new replay manual codifying processes and procedures that will eliminate the potential for an incident like the one in last year’s Washington State v. USC game reoccurring;
• Enhancements to training programs for officials, and more consistency in grading and training from the officiating supervisors; and
• A new communications protocol with more transparency and public comment around significant calls or errors that either impact player safety or the result of the game.
Two items seem more significant than the others:
1. The increase in transparency and public comment “around significant errors” that impact safety (hello, targeting) and the outcome of the game. There’s a fine line here — lurch too far toward public comment, and it undermines authority and efficiency.
But at the same time, a reasonable level of transparency adds credibility.
2. The change in reporting structure
David Coleman, the coordinator of football officials, will report directly to Scott instead of lead football administrator Woodie Dixon. This was absolutely essential — only by giving Coleman autonomy can the process work most effectively.
Dixon, who doubles as the general counsel and is not a trained official, will no longer exert authority.