The Pac-12 Lost Millions Last Weekend and This Season

The Arizona Wildcats Football team made front line news with another top-10 upset at home this weekend. Unfortunately Utah was not the only loser in this weekend’s results.

As we were celebrating in Tucson, and we had every reason to celebrate, the rest of the nation were writing their headlines about what really happened in the Pac-12. This season is now almost a complete loss for the Pac-12 and all of its schools.

The chance of any team now playing in the College Football Playoffs (CFP) is out the window. With those opportunities goes about $10,000,000. Yes, you read that correctly, its millions of dollars that the Pac-12 and its schools will not be earning, and none of their teams are going to the big show.

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So how can that be right? Last season the Pac-12 made $10 million dollars on Oregon and Arizona playing in their bowl games. Power 5 conference teams make $6 million dollars per team in the CFP semifinals, and they also make $4 million for teams playing in a non-playoff game, such as the Rose, Sugar, Peach, and Fiesta Bowl.

The SEC, Big 12, Big 10 are in play for the biggest CFP payday at $14 million dollars. The Pac-12 is now probably only going home with $4 million dollars, only cause the Pac-12 Champ is guaranteed a spot in the Rose Bowl. Pac-12 could potentially make $10 million less than the other Power 5 conferences. Here is a simple look and break down into just how much money conferences can make in postseason play from CBSsports.

The bad news only gets worse for Wildcats fans. Remember waking up the day after Thanksgiving and looking forward to one of the biggest weekends in college football? Wildcats fans usually look forward to chowing down on leftovers, then watching their team take on their rivals by either going out or watching the game at home. We wait all year for this game no matter how good or bad the season has been.

Wildcats fans will be football-less this Thanksgiving weekend! Wow, way to go Pac-12, was it worth all this? By worth it I mean the fact that you scheduled the Stanford vs. Notre Dame game to make the couple hundred thousand dollars and that messed up the schedule. But was it worth breaking Arizona’s tradition of rivalry week taking place on the final week of the football season?

There will be some Pac-12 rivalry games played on Thanksgiving weekend when Arizona will finally get their bye week, when it doesn’t matter. One possible saving grace might be that more U of A students can travel up north for the game to support their team this year. Normally students have already made their way back to their hometown for the long weekend.

The stakes are not as high for this weekends Duel in the Desert as prior years but there’s still plenty to play for; A 7-5 record as well as a chance for our Wildcats to keep the school from up north out of postseason play. Who in college football would not want to see this game next week in prime time just like last season?

So the only question left for the Pac-12 is, how much will it take for you to realize you’re killing your conference? Put aside the fact the Wildcats were dealt a seriously bad hand this season with no bye week, more games than other conferences and plenty of injuries, we still made it to a bowl game against all odds. When will you help out the conference out and realize what works better for the Pac-12 conference and all its teams? Granted the Pac-12 cannot ask teams to tank, but there has to be a better way.

The Pac-12 is extremely competitive, but the national committee refuses to take this into consideration. Now, with Pat Haden gone and not being replaced, we have less of a Pac-12 presence on the committee as well. Doesn’t Ohio State have a soft schedule?  Notre Dame is ranked No. 4 now, and you could assume the committee must being deeming a win over USC a quality win. We will watch closely to see if the committee gives Stanford, now No. 11,  any love if they win out.

Let’s compare the Pac-12 to one of the other great conferences in the Nation, the SEC. They only play an 8-game conference schedule, they also play some lesser competition in the heat of the season. Alabama plays Charleston Southern, and Florida plays Florida Atlantic this weekend, nothing against Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic but I mean do we see an upset here?

Next: 10 Things Arizona Wildcats Fans Hate About ASU

Wildcats fans, we ask you not only as a fan of Arizona but as a fan of the Pac-12 conference, were all the changes this season worth it in the end? Didn’t think so, and neither do most of the coaches in the Pac-12. Time to start complaining and maybe something will change next year, but Larry Scott can’t even get the Pac-12 channel on DirecTV, so we continue to hope for that to happen.

Now that we got all that off our chests let’s get ready for the biggest game of the year and lets BEARDOWN and bring back the Territorial Cup to where it belongs, in Tucson!

Good luck gentlemen and bring the cup home!!