Pac-12 Championship Game At Levi’s Stadium Doesn’t Favor South Division

Dec 7, 2013; Tempe, AZ, USA; The Stanford Cardinal take the field to start the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

It came out today that the Pac-12 Conference is in talks with Levi’s Stadium, the new stadium of the San Francisco 49ers, to potentially be the host for the Pac-12 Football Championship Game. The new stadium, which is in Santa Clara, California, at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, is only 13.5 miles from Stanford and 45 miles from Cal.

Despite the stadium having and the bells and whistes that a new stadium should, the location does not favor Pac-12 teams in the South Division.

According to Sports Illustrated:

"..The league is “discussing” moving away from its current format of having one of the participants host the game, as Arizona State did last December. If a change were made, it would go into effect this season, meaning the 2014 championship game scheduled for Dec. 5 would take place in the Bay Area.”"

As iconic as it would be to have a flagship stadium, the current model allows for the team with the best overall record to host the Pac-12’s Championship game. This has been a right for the top team to earn at the end of every conference season.

Moving the Championship Game away from the “home team advantage” model will make it harder for the South Division’s fan bases to join in on the game experience. Whether  it is air travel or a road trip, costs will increase, putting these teams and their fans at a disadvantage.

Take a look at the distance (in miles) for the four farthest schools from Levi’s Stadium (if they were to make the Pac-12 Championship Game): Arizona 831, Washington 840, Washington State 904 and Colorado 1,290. The Buffaloes not only have to travel over a thousand miles, but nearly 400 miles more than the second farthest team, WSU. To add, of the six farthest schools, four of them are in the South Division.

Now here is the UCLA twist, as we are a UCLA fan site…

This season is expected to be a big one for UCLA and if they were to make it to the Pac-12 Championship Game as the team with the best record, they would play at the Rose Bowl. Having the game permanently moved to Levi’s Stadium would have that opportunity taken away from them and will be forced to travel to the Bay Area. Instead of the 26.7 mile trek, UCLA would have to travel 341 miles as their reward for having the best record.

Here is another scenario to ponder: one of the predicted winners of the North Division is Stanford. If the Cardinal make it as well, how is it far to play a game in Stanford’s backyard when UCLA (or any of the South Division teams for that matter) could potentially have the best team in the conference? It does not.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott has done a lot of good things for the conference since he has taken over, but this decision seems to favor only one entity, the Pac-12 Conference, itself.

Mike W.R.

Twitter: @TheBigDisco