West Coast!: Attacking the East Coast Bias

College football starts this week and one thing troubles me more than anything else; the Pac-10 gets no respect.  In fact, no West Coast teams get any respect.

People forget that the Pac-10 is the conference of champions.  The three schools with the most NCAA championships all time are UCLA, Stanford, and USC - all Pac-10 schools.  UCLA has the most basketball championships by a long shot.  USC has the most baseball championships (12) by a long shot and is tied for the lead with the most Heisman Trophy winners (7).  Stanford just is good at everything else.  The Pac-10 also possesses the most Olympians.  Yet the Pac-10 still gets overlooked.

Remember in 2004 and in 2008 when Utah went undefeated, yet failed to be considered for the national championship game?  Or in 2006 when Boise State went 13-0, beat Oklahoma in that Fiesta Bowl thriller, and still got snubbed?

A Pac-10 team has to run the table in order to make it into the national championship game.  Any one loss during the season puts them out of contention (just ask USC).  However a team in the SEC (*cough* Florida *cough*) can lose to a powerderpuff like Ole Miss and everyone makes excuses to defend them.

“Oh well Florida plays in the toughest conference in the SEC.  You can’t expect an SEC team to go undefeated.  They should be allowed one or two flukes per year.”

Granted, Florida has been the best team over the last few years and if I was a member of the AP and had voting power (which I should - CNB is big time), I would have voted for them to be in the title last season.  But the point I am trying to get at is that the West Coast is overlooked.  And part of that is the West Coast’s fault.

The Pac-10 commissioner needs to figure out how the media world works.  Up until a couple years ago, the Pac-10 had an exclusive television contract with FSN - a regional broadcaster - meaning games were only televised in each teams local market.  They have since signed a deal with ESPN to televise some of their games, but there are still some glaring issues.

For example, the prime time game this Thursday night, between no. 14 Boise State vs no. 16 Oregon, will begin coverage at 10:15 on the East Coast.  This is a weeknight, folks.  No sane New Yorker will stay up to watch that game.  It won’t even make the morning edition of the New York Times.

It is a weeknight on the West Coast as well and it is difficult to have a prime time game on a weeknight before 7pm, so we’ll let this one slide, but this is a major problem.  ESPN has a deal with the Pac-10 to televise games on Thursday nights.  Kind of like the deal with the Big East.  One problem: everyone gets to see the Big East game (or at least the second half).  Only half the nation will stay up to watch the Pac-10 game.

This problem happens on weekends, too.  The prime time game on Saturdays will be at either 5:00 or 7:00.  Sometimes as late as 7:30 or 8:00.  That epic Fresno State/USC game in 2005 where Reggie Bush had 513 all-purpose yards (including 294 rushing) in a 50-42 win didn’t end until well after 1 am on the east coast.  Everyone was either asleep or out on the town.

This year, no. 4 USC plays at no. 16 Oregon on Halloween at 5:00pm on the West Coast.  What person with a social live on the East Coast is going to watch that game!?  This game could determine the outcome of the Pac-10 and most people on the East Coast won’t even know it was played!  Nor see the Oregon cheerleaders in HD!  That alone should be reason enough to watch.

It’s a shame that the major media outlets are based in the East and don’t give a hoot about any games played west of Texas.  It’s also a shame that the West Coast hasn’t figured this out and adapted their schedule a little bit.

But until the day that instead of forcing West Coasters to rush home from work early to catch a game, East Coasters are forced to stay up late to catch a game, we’ll just keep plugging away out here and pray that our teams go undefeated and don’t get overlooked for the national title - which is played on the West Coast this year (Rose Bowl in Pasadena).

Care to join Corey in his push to defeat the East Coast bias?  Show your support in the comments below!