Given the lack of support that Cal athletics has historically received from the administration, there will undoubtedly be deaf ears in the audience, however I'm encouraged by Kliavkoff's refreshing and, so far at least, unfiltered and candid messaging, including this as reported in Wilner's Pac-12 hotline today:

New commissioner George Kliavkoff hopes to change that state of affairs by making the case to the university presidents and chancellors that investing in football can provide returns that benefit not only cash-strapped athletic departments but entire campuses. "Historically, I don't think we've made a great case for the ROI of football,'' Kliavkoff told the Hotline. "I'm not going to take the opportunity to speak to my 12 bosses without talking about it. It's going to be a constant topic. They are going to get tired of hearing it from me.''

I hope he means what he says, and that he does indeed continue to beat the drum for this simple but important message to the conference as a whole.

I still can't believe how awful Larry Scott was. Just an absolute dumpster fire. It's funny seeing Kliavkoff talk trash about how bad Larry Scott was and the mess he left for him. Hopefully he doesn't use it as an excuse for not getting things done though. Luckily, he doesn't seem like that kind of guy.

Perhaps I'm just jaded and cynical, but I have a hard time believing school administrators will care what the commissioner has to say, and they will instead listen and go back to whatever they were concerned about before.

ARbear said:

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It's about time we have someone like this. He also needs to focus on getting Pac 12 Network on any and every cable/satellite/streaming service he can find. With new blue blood staffs at U$C and Oregon, we need to use the opportunity to get some conference publicity and get our teams seen by the rest of the country. Eyes from the East will definitely be on how Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning next year. The Pac 12 has its back against the wall in a college football landscape that is changing quickly. If we don't want to go the way of the dodo, every team in this conference needs to change their mindset, and quick. I like what I'm hearing about the new guy though. It's a refreshing change.

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I don't think people quite appreciate the impact that a 3 hour time difference has on the "Eyes from the East." I am from California, went to school at Cal, but have lived out East for the past +15 years. Until the Pac-12 Network, it was almost impossible to find a Cal game on cable. You might get the rando Thursday night feed for the Pac-12 game of the night, but it wasn't like you had unfettered choice between all the Pac-12 games. The emergence of the Pac-12 network was huge in my perspective. While it was a bit of a **** show waiting and trying to determine which provider would carry all the Pac-12 network feeds, I ultimately gave up on Direct TV and found my home in streaming Sling TV.

But that is only part of the challenge as I see it. Case it point was last nights game between Cal and USC in basketball. Your typical Thursday game between conference foes, no less a Top 10 team was involved. We'll the game didn't even start on the East coast until 11pm. That means you probably aren't going to bed until after 1am ET if you are a fan, a reporter, a drunk guy/gal sitting on their couch. While I have no idea how media value is calculated in TV deals, I have to think that the Pac-12 has to take hair cut on the value simply because nobody with Eyes in the East is really even awake while Cal is in on TV.

So for this to work, I feel like there will have to be a cultural shift from the home fans to accommodate people with Eyes in the East to even watch, much less care about the Pac-12. I'm talking about starting basketball games in the Pacific time zone no later than 6pm. I'm talking about totally envisioning the start times for football to compete with the college football culture on the East Coast. Pac-12 will only be valued if it is seen nationally, and will only be paid out by media executives if the logistics of all content match up well with the Eye Lids of the East. Mine are often closed when games start back home.

There is so much hand-ringing already over the in-person game experience these days I can't even imagine asking fans on the Pacific Coast to consider time adjustments for an already decreasing in-person value and game experience.

Tell me we aren't screwed? Seems like we have an insurmountable geographical disadvantage at play. It makes a lot of sense why Oklahoma and Texas went to the SEC - it had a lot to do with the timing of the games relative to the world who writes about them, the media who writes the checks and when people are watching.

PS: If any new media contract doesn't include cloud DVR I'm screwed.

CALiforniALUM said:

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ARbear said:

---

It's about time we have someone like this. He also needs to focus on getting Pac 12 Network on any and every cable/satellite/streaming service he can find. With new blue blood staffs at U$C and Oregon, we need to use the opportunity to get some conference publicity and get our teams seen by the rest of the country. Eyes from the East will definitely be on how Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning next year. The Pac 12 has its back against the wall in a college football landscape that is changing quickly. If we don't want to go the way of the dodo, every team in this conference needs to change their mindset, and quick. I like what I'm hearing about the new guy though. It's a refreshing change.

---

I don't think people quite appreciate the impact that a 3 hour time difference has on the "Eyes from the East." I am from California, went to school at Cal, but have lived out East for the past +15 years. Until the Pac-12 Network, it was almost impossible to find a Cal game on cable. You might get the rando Thursday night feed for the Pac-12 game of the night, but it wasn't like you had unfettered choice between all the Pac-12 games. The emergence of the Pac-12 network was huge in my perspective. While it was a bit of a **** show waiting and trying to determine which provider would carry all the Pac-12 network feeds, I ultimately gave up on Direct TV and found my home in streaming Sling TV.

But that is only part of the challenge as I see it. Case it point was last nights game between Cal and USC in basketball. Your typical Thursday game between conference foes, no less a Top 10 team was involved. We'll the game didn't even start on the East coast until 11pm. That means you probably aren't going to bed until after 1am ET if you are a fan, a reporter, a drunk guy/gal sitting on their couch. While I have no idea how media value is calculated in TV deals, I have to think that the Pac-12 has to take hair cut on the value simply because nobody with Eyes in the East is really even awake while Cal is in on TV.

So for this to work, I feel like there will have to be a cultural shift from the home fans to accommodate people with Eyes in the East to even watch, much less care about the Pac-12. I'm talking about starting basketball games in the Pacific time zone no later than 6pm. I'm talking about totally envisioning the start times for football to compete with the college football culture on the East Coast. Pac-12 will only be valued if it is seen nationally, and will only be paid out by media executives if the logistics of all content match up well with the Eye Lids of the East. Mine are often closed when games start back home.

There is so much hand-ringing already over the in-person game experience these days I can't even imagine asking fans on the Pacific Coast to consider time adjustments for an already decreasing in-person value and game experience.

Tell me we aren't screwed? Seems like we have an insurmountable geographical disadvantage at play. It makes a lot of sense why Oklahoma and Texas went to the SEC - it had a lot to do with the timing of the games relative to the world who writes about them, the media who writes the checks and when people are watching.

PS: If any new media contract doesn't include cloud DVR I'm screwed.

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Good points here, but in the end we have to ask ourselves why we maintain athletic programs.

It's not (or shouldn't be) so that people on the East Coast unaffliliated with Cal can be entertained.

First and foremost, the programs need to respond to the desires of the students in terms of school spirit and pride. If the students don't derive any value from athletics then there is no need to continue to provide them. If having football games at 4am local time quadrupled revenue I would still be fundamentally opposed.

Second, the programs need to respond to the desires of the alumni as a way to remain connected to the school and a vehicle for donations.

Third, the programs need to respond to the needs of the student-athletes participating.

What happens on the East Coast is irrelevant if it negatively impacts the students, alumni, and players.

We spend too much time worrying about revenues and championships and not enough worrying about the game day experience.

This focus is why, despite spending a lot of money, it is not near as fun to go to basketball games at Haas as it was at Harmon.

CALiforniALUM said:

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ARbear said:

---

It's about time we have someone like this. He also needs to focus on getting Pac 12 Network on any and every cable/satellite/streaming service he can find. With new blue blood staffs at U$C and Oregon, we need to use the opportunity to get some conference publicity and get our teams seen by the rest of the country. Eyes from the East will definitely be on how Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning next year. The Pac 12 has its back against the wall in a college football landscape that is changing quickly. If we don't want to go the way of the dodo, every team in this conference needs to change their mindset, and quick. I like what I'm hearing about the new guy though. It's a refreshing change.

---

I don't think people quite appreciate the impact that a 3 hour time difference has on the "Eyes from the East." I am from California, went to school at Cal, but have lived out East for the past +15 years. Until the Pac-12 Network, it was almost impossible to find a Cal game on cable. You might get the rando Thursday night feed for the Pac-12 game of the night, but it wasn't like you had unfettered choice between all the Pac-12 games. The emergence of the Pac-12 network was huge in my perspective. While it was a bit of a **** show waiting and trying to determine which provider would carry all the Pac-12 network feeds, I ultimately gave up on Direct TV and found my home in streaming Sling TV.

But that is only part of the challenge as I see it. Case it point was last nights game between Cal and USC in basketball. Your typical Thursday game between conference foes, no less a Top 10 team was involved. We'll the game didn't even start on the East coast until 11pm. That means you probably aren't going to bed until after 1am ET if you are a fan, a reporter, a drunk guy/gal sitting on their couch. While I have no idea how media value is calculated in TV deals, I have to think that the Pac-12 has to take hair cut on the value simply because nobody with Eyes in the East is really even awake while Cal is in on TV.

So for this to work, I feel like there will have to be a cultural shift from the home fans to accommodate people with Eyes in the East to even watch, much less care about the Pac-12. I'm talking about starting basketball games in the Pacific time zone no later than 6pm. I'm talking about totally envisioning the start times for football to compete with the college football culture on the East Coast. Pac-12 will only be valued if it is seen nationally, and will only be paid out by media executives if the logistics of all content match up well with the Eye Lids of the East. Mine are often closed when games start back home.

There is so much hand-ringing already over the in-person game experience these days I can't even imagine asking fans on the Pacific Coast to consider time adjustments for an already decreasing in-person value and game experience.

Tell me we aren't screwed? Seems like we have an insurmountable geographical disadvantage at play. It makes a lot of sense why Oklahoma and Texas went to the SEC - it had a lot to do with the timing of the games relative to the world who writes about them, the media who writes the checks and when people are watching.

PS: If any new media contract doesn't include cloud DVR I'm screwed.

---

We should play on Friday nights instead of Thursday nights. 7:00 pm start is 10:00 pm in the East Coast, a time when people are still in bars, looking for sports to watch. It would be better for the student athletes too. They can attend class on Thursdays. Thursday night games can be rough on fans who have to work or have school the next day.

The second game can be Saturday night or better, Sunday afternoon.

CALiforniALUM said:

---

ARbear said:

---

It's about time we have someone like this. He also needs to focus on getting Pac 12 Network on any and every cable/satellite/streaming service he can find. With new blue blood staffs at U$C and Oregon, we need to use the opportunity to get some conference publicity and get our teams seen by the rest of the country. Eyes from the East will definitely be on how Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning next year. The Pac 12 has its back against the wall in a college football landscape that is changing quickly. If we don't want to go the way of the dodo, every team in this conference needs to change their mindset, and quick. I like what I'm hearing about the new guy though. It's a refreshing change.

---

I don't think people quite appreciate the impact that a 3 hour time difference has on the "Eyes from the East." I am from California, went to school at Cal, but have lived out East for the past +15 years. Until the Pac-12 Network, it was almost impossible to find a Cal game on cable. You might get the rando Thursday night feed for the Pac-12 game of the night, but it wasn't like you had unfettered choice between all the Pac-12 games. The emergence of the Pac-12 network was huge in my perspective. While it was a bit of a **** show waiting and trying to determine which provider would carry all the Pac-12 network feeds, I ultimately gave up on Direct TV and found my home in streaming Sling TV.

But that is only part of the challenge as I see it. Case it point was last nights game between Cal and USC in basketball. Your typical Thursday game between conference foes, no less a Top 10 team was involved. We'll the game didn't even start on the East coast until 11pm. That means you probably aren't going to bed until after 1am ET if you are a fan, a reporter, a drunk guy/gal sitting on their couch. While I have no idea how media value is calculated in TV deals, I have to think that the Pac-12 has to take hair cut on the value simply because nobody with Eyes in the East is really even awake while Cal is in on TV.

So for this to work, I feel like there will have to be a cultural shift from the home fans to accommodate people with Eyes in the East to even watch, much less care about the Pac-12. I'm talking about starting basketball games in the Pacific time zone no later than 6pm. I'm talking about totally envisioning the start times for football to compete with the college football culture on the East Coast. Pac-12 will only be valued if it is seen nationally, and will only be paid out by media executives if the logistics of all content match up well with the Eye Lids of the East. Mine are often closed when games start back home.

There is so much hand-ringing already over the in-person game experience these days I can't even imagine asking fans on the Pacific Coast to consider time adjustments for an already decreasing in-person value and game experience.

Tell me we aren't screwed? Seems like we have an insurmountable geographical disadvantage at play. It makes a lot of sense why Oklahoma and Texas went to the SEC - it had a lot to do with the timing of the games relative to the world who writes about them, the media who writes the checks and when people are watching.

PS: If any new media contract doesn't include cloud DVR I'm screwed.

---

I don't care about the east coast. The Pac12 needs to start worrying about the west coast. The east coast will figure it out if there is a reason to care.