Consequences of Megaconferences

Michigan State fans lost their collective minds when they found out that the Spartans' game at USC would have an 11:00 Eastern kickoff.  Meanwhile, what did they expect?  The game is on the West Coast (meaning it could be scheduled late) and FOX has an 11:00 TV window.  It's part of the reason why the Big Ten added the West Coast teams in the first place.  So, why were they surprised by the late kickoff?

Be as angry as you want about the 11:00 kickoff.  It's something that was bound to happen when conference road games on the West Coast were added to the mix.  Last year, Rutgers (which is much further east than Michigan State) played at USC in the Friday 11:00 timeslot after Game 1 of the World Series (and it ended up getting moved to FS1 in New York because of extended World Series postgame).  Where was the uproar about that?

Meanwhile, you know what time USC's game at Illinois next week kicks off?  Noon Eastern!  Evidently, it's completely OK with fans of other Big Ten schools for the Trojans to play at 9 a.m. Pacific time.  Yet when their own team goes to LA and has a late kickoff, that's somehow totally unacceptable.  Even though the Big Ten schedules it so that they'll have at most one West Coast game per season, while the West Coast teams have to come East multiple times.

I'm not suggesting people should have sympathy for UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington because of their travel situation.  They knew it would be part of the deal when they agreed to join the Big Ten.  Just as the other Big Ten schools knew travel to the West Coast would be part of the deal for them.  So, whining about having to start late when they visit the West Coast teams is just that.  Whining.

This is exactly what the Big Ten wanted when they raided the Pac-12.  They envisioned a full day of Big Ten football starting at noon and ending after midnight when the West Coast game finishes.  Those West Coast games won't just be UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington playing each other!  Somebody has to be the road team!  That's just the reality of the situation.

It's also the same thing in the ACC, by the way.  Don't forget, they picked up Stanford and Cal out of the remnants of the Pac-12.  When Stanford hosts Florida State (which, like Michigan State, is in the Eastern time zone), you know what time the game starts?  10:30 Eastern.  Again, where's the uproar about that?  Ditto with Cal-North Carolina, which kicks off way past Bill Belichick's bedtime.

Also, not for nothing, most college football games are played on weekends.  It's not like fans are being asked to stay up until 2:00 then go to work in the morning.  (That, by the way, is what baseball fans do for an entire week multiple times a season.)  You can sleep in the next day.  It's also one game over the course of the season.  So, it's not exactly the end of the world!

With conferences now stretching from Coast to Coast, this is a new reality that fans need to get used to.  If your team is scheduled to go to the West Coast, there's a good chance that the game will start late.  The TV networks have a college football timeslot they need to fill, after all.  And it's really no different than asking those West Coast teams to start early when they go on the road.  So, no, it's not unreasonable for Michigan State-USC to start at 11 or for Cal-North Carolina to start at 10:30.

What's ironic about these fans' complaints, too, is how many of them will stay up and watch those late games anyway.  I get that there's a difference between watching something because it's on and not really caring who wins or if you fall asleep before it's over and being invested in the outcome.  Those fans also seem to forget that, while it's not convenient for them, the 11:00 Eastern/8:00 Pacific start time is convenient for fans of their team's opponent.  Specifically for people attending the game.  While college football is a TV sport, you can't forget about the people actually in the stadium.

And, frankly, a college football game kicking off a few hours later than fans on the East Coast are used to pales in comparison to how bad it is for fans on the West Coast.  Noon on the East Coast is 9 a.m. there.  Do you think that's a convenient time for them?  (If you live on the West Coast, to watch live coverage of something that's taking place in Asia, you need to get up at 3-4 a.m., if not earlier.)  Yet, do you hear them complaining?  No!  Because they know it's part of the deal.

Long road trips and inconvenient start times are a part of the new reality.  It's simply unrealistic to think every game will be scheduled at the same time of day or that when they are played will be convenient for everybody.  Especially when you have designated TV windows and the conference chooses which game goes on which network at what time.  A marquee matchup is more likely to be played in primetime on the East Coast (which is the late afternoon on the West Coast).  A matchup that isn't marquee, meanwhile, will get one of those less desirable timeslots. 

Of course, there's an easy solution to these TV timeslot issues.  They could have a conference that's made up entirely (or, at least, primarily) of schools based on the West Coast.  Then, they could play each other in those late timeslots after everybody else played earlier in the day.  Oh wait...they already had that, didn't they?  I wonder what happened.  Because that sounds like a great idea.

So, no, I've got no sympathy for the "poor" Michigan State fans who'll have to "suffer" through a game that kicks off at 11 p.m. local time.  The Big Ten (and its member schools) wanted this.  And you reap what you sow.  Adding the four West Coast teams to the league meant some long road trips and late games.  Everyone signed off on it.  It's what led to the complete decimation of another conference.  It's a little too late to be having buyer's remorse.

These megaconferences are most likely here to stay.  So are games on the West Coast with late start times that feature conference opponents from the opposite side of the country.  The fan bases of those East Coast schools can complain about it all they want.  But they'd better get used to it.  Because it probably ain't changing anytime soon.