Pac-12 scheduling oddities

[prh]

After our awful performance following a quick mountain turnaround, I thought I'd go through every Pac12 schedule and track the turnaround for every pair of conference games. This considered every road trip and each paired home stand (i.e. Arizona hosting Oregon schools, but ignoring single rivalry games).

I did find some interesting tidbits, so let me lay out how I looked at this data:

• All turnaround times are the time between tipoff. A 44 to 48 hour turnaround is most common and most reasonable. i.e. 7pm on Thursday, 3pm on Saturday

• Anything below 44 hours is counted as "short." Anything below 42 should be considered "extreme" (i.e. 7pm Thur to noon Sat)

• There are 28 3-day turnarounds ("long"), which are great when traveling. There are no 1-day turnarounds

• Shortest turnaround is 40 and longest is 90 (yes, 4 days)

• I believe that ordering the road trips by travel difficulty would be: Mountain, Washington, (big gap) Arizona, Oregon, NorCal, SoCal

• Each team has 8 total turnarounds (4 home/4 road). There are 96 total for the conference, although 10 are TBD (game times not yet set).

• Additionally, each travel pairing has 8 turnarounds (i.e. 8 teams do the Mountain trip)

Ok hopefully that sets a good groundwork. On to the interesting things. Out of 84 scheduled turnarounds:

• There are 7 total extreme turnarounds (less than 42 hours)

• Arizona has 2 of these, as does Cal. No other team has 2.

• Out of the 8 Mountain trips, 6 teams have a 3-day turnaround. Only us (41 hours) and UW (44) do not have 3 days.

• Arizona has 2 short turnarounds, and 2 long turnarounds. Only Cal has 2 short trips, the rest have 1 or 0.

• OSU and UW do not have any long trips. They each have 1 short trip, and no extreme trips.

• USC has zero short trips, and a shocking 5 long trips.

• There are 3 4-day turnarounds, and Colorado has 2 of them (both at home).

• Arizona has 2 turnarounds TBD, and both appear likely to be short.

• ASU has 3 long turnarounds, all on the road, including Mountain and Washington trips (2 worst).

I have a full spreadsheet, so ask any questions you guys think of. I also marked the broadcast network of each 2nd game, just to see if there was any pattern with networks (none apparent). I know I used the words "trip" and "turnaround" interchangeably, despite including home games. I just got tired of typing "turnaround"

I don't think there's any intentionally bad intent with the scheduling, but it is far more imbalanced than I would have expected. The fact that 6 out of 8 teams have 3 days to travel between Utah and Colorado is interesting, and the fact USC doesn't have any short turnarounds but does have 5 (out of 8!) 3-day turnarounds is very strange. Arizona having 2 of 6 total extreme turnarounds is rough, especially with 2 more TBD. Athletes appear to miss a lot more classes than I would have expected as well.

I know there's a Larry Scott thread but I thought this might be better in its own thread. Mods feel free to move if needed.

EDIT: Miscounted one Cal game, which was also extremely short. They are hurt by scheduling, but overall have it better than we do. Added note about ASU's gracious road trips.

[scumdevils86]

Good work. It's painfully obvious they try and screw Arizona at every turn.

Cue machina

[PHXCATS]

1) Miller complained about the "long" trips in 2016 and was granted his wish last year to the tune of zero long trips. This year has 2. Thats fine, evens itself out.

2) Most of this hinges on ESPN and Fox, not Larry Scott

3) Larry Scott and the PAC-12 is not trying to painfully obviously screw Arizona at all times

[baycat93]

it really all comes down to how shitty the Pac-12 Network is. An 11am PST game on the Pac-12 Network! Just stupid. On top of it the noted above turnaround on a very tough travel trip is ridiculous. It is not why we lost... but certainly made it more challenging. I mean if we are talking the LA turnaround... not an issue from a playing standpoint. From a viewership standpoint...still obtuse at best.

Much like this past football season with the Friday night game following a Saturday road trip. Larry scott and his band of overpaid idiots have no idea about the actual product. Sad the Presidents continue to pay this guy. The Pac-12 leadership does not understand their product or their customers.

[prh]

2) Most of this hinges on ESPN and Fox, not Larry Scott

Out the 11 short turnarounds, 7 of them are on Pac12 network. Actually, the majority of strange start times are Pac12 network.

Also, it's a bit of missing the forest for the trees. Even if Miller doesn't want long trips, there's no reason 6 of the 8 mountain trips are 3 days and ours is barely a day and a half.

[PHXCATS]

2) Most of this hinges on ESPN and Fox, not Larry Scott

Out the 11 short turnarounds, 7 of them are on Pac12 network. Actually, the majority of strange start times are Pac12 network.

Also, it's a bit of missing the forest for the trees. Even if Miller doesn't want long trips, there's no reason 6 of the 8 mountain trips are 3 days and ours is barely a day and a half.

The PAC12 broadcast women's ball on Sunday. Except for the new years holiday PAC12 only has 2 Sunday men's games. Also ESPN and Fox have a say in times and matchups it picks and I believe that they have a say in the games they go against. So they control a lot. Only so many slots they can put games in

[Bordercat]

I'll go ahead and say it. I believe 100% they try to spread AZ love. If Colorado can beat AZ it gives them some legitimacy. It helps Colorado ticket sales, it boosts the conference and makes things more interesting. Nobody wants to see AZ cake walk through the conference season. They purposely do this shit for a reason.

I'll take it a step further. They give ASU the better end of it almost entirely. For example, ASU playing in Utah on Sunday at 6pm. If you look through the schedule I bet you ASU has the better set-up almost every weekend.

This has been happening for a while. Part of being AZ and the flagship for the conference.

[baycat93]

2) Most of this hinges on ESPN and Fox, not Larry Scott

Out the 11 short turnarounds, 7 of them are on Pac12 network. Actually, the majority of strange start times are Pac12 network.

Also, it's a bit of missing the forest for the trees. Even if Miller doesn't want long trips, there's no reason 6 of the 8 mountain trips are 3 days and ours is barely a day and a half.

The PAC12 broadcast women's ball on Sunday. Except for the new years holiday PAC12 only has 2 Sunday men's games. Also ESPN and Fox have a say in times and matchups it picks and I believe that they have a say in the games they go against. So they control a lot. Only so many slots they can put games in

Yes, but Scott negotiated those terms and gave those rights away. There is absolutely no reason a Pac-12 game should be played at 11AM PST. None.