Pac-12 needs a wake-up call ... fast

The idea of scheduling college football games for 9 in the morning is just plain stupid.

In fact, it’s beyond stupid.

Idiotic is a little closer.

This 9 a.m. thing is a crazy scheme dreamed up by some knuckleheads in the office of Larry Scott, the beleaguered commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference.

Actually, the idea was first floated by a journalist — Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury.

While it’s nice to know that university administrators might listen to a sports columnist once in a while, this damn sure isn’t the right time.

The problem that the conference is trying to address here is pretty simple: Since there haven’t been many Pac-12 teams denting the national landscape in a few years, the “Conference of Champions” has been forgotten by everyone east of the Rockies.

It’s not just some poll voter in Chicken Claw, Alabama, either.

Being ignored in favor of the eighth-best team in the SEC is bothersome, sure.

You’d like to see a few Pac-12 teams back in the rankings sometime this century — but that voter in Dixie is NEVER going to take time to stare at Oregon State and Arizona on his flat screen.

He’d rather watch Talladega re-runs.

THE ISSUE isn’t whether a few voters or podcast hosts ignore the western third of the country.

Nope, what matters is those millions and millions of ordinary TV viewers who aren’t tuning in, not even to see Washington against Stanford – or any other meaningful Pac-12 game.

That lack of interest translates to grumpy execs at Fox and ESPN, the people who negotiate major deals with Scott and the Pac-12.

Less audience means less revenue, which means skimpier checks for the conference’s schools.

You know, there are some really useful ways the Pac-12 could get back on the nation’s radar — like WINNING, for instance — but deciding to play some games at dawn is a hideous idea in almost every way possible.

The theory, obviously, is that maybe someone along the Atlantic seaboard might be tempted to tune in if the Pac-12 offered a noon kickoff.

Of course, Clemson or Georgia or Ohio State will be teeing it up just an hour later on most weekends, so that viewer you’re chasing will be gone soon, anyhow.

Or...

How about kicking off at 7 a.m., you know, trying to finish before the Michigan-Notre Dame game?

Yeah, I’m joking, but it isn’t really THAT much dumber.

Back to reality: Imagine how ridiculous it would be when Utah is scheduled to come play a 9 a.m. game in Pullman.

Any visiting team would have to get here on Thursday for starters, then adjust to a time change in some cases, and finally, be ready for that always fun 4 a.m. wake-up call on Saturday morning.

It won’t be a barrel of laughs for fans who want to see games in person, either.

Will THEY get up at 4 on a rainy morning if you’ve lost three in a row and the game’s on TV?

IT’S HARDLY a shock that Pac-12 coaches want nothing to do with playing football before breakfast.

Wazzu’s Mike Leach and Stanford’s David Shaw spoke up just this week, both trying to remind the conference that somebody should think about the athletes.

These kids already are earning millions for their universities with no monetary compensation, and now the suggestion is that they should get up in the dark because somebody at ESPN thinks ratings might go up a tick in Delaware or Indiana.

Could anything be more embarrassing for Pac-12 institutions?

Schools that already are whoring for sports TV money — and pretending it’s to build new chemistry labs — now actually are listening to Scott tell them to play football at 9 a.m.

Is this even worth discussing?

No, no, and hell no.

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the off season.

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