Arizona played the nation’s latest FBS games on Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 and will again do so on Sept. 29, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. against USC.
There’s one thing good about that: Tucson is still on Pacific time. After Nov. 2, those 7:30 and 8 o’clock kickoffs will convert to Mountain time, or 8:30 and 9.
This is life in the Pac-12. The TV industry owns college football starting times and the inventory of games available for the Eastern time zone’s late Saturday programming falls forever on the Pac-12.
That’s how the UA is able to spend $25 million to fix up the ancient digs at the Zona Zoo, and that’s how it is able to pay Rich Rodriguez $6 million not to be its coach.
The evolution of TV’s influence during 40 years of Pac-10/12 football is head-shaking. For example, the Sept. 29 Arizona-USC game will be the seventh Tucson game played on a Sept. 29 in the Pac-10/12 years.
Because of the pre-October heat in Tucson, the start times haven’t changed much, but the influence of TV has multiplied by such a big number that it’s difficult to count all the zeroes.
Incredibly, on Sept. 29, 1979, when Arizona played host to San Jose State at 7:30 p.m., only two college football games were televised live nationally.
Two.
ABC broadcast the Penn State-Nebraska game at 9:30 a.m. in Tucson. ABC capped its doubleheader with the UCLA-Ohio State game at 1 p.m.
The only night game available on Tucson television was Channel 11’s delayed broadcast of the Michigan State-Notre Dame game, 11 p.m.
Arizona? There was no telecast of the San Jose State game of Sept. 29, 1979. The local independent station, Channel 11, chose the delayed Notre Dame game. If you did not attend the UA game, the only way to keep updated was to listen to the radio broadcast on KCEE (790-AM).
With such a captive audience, 2-1-1 Arizona drew 48,061 to watch a really bad 0-2-1 San Jose State team. Not many complained about the 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Here’s how it evolved into today’s Late Night with the Pac-12:
- Sept. 29, 1984, Long Beach State at Arizona, 6 p.m. Tucson’s Channel 9 broadcast the game on a delayed basis, at 10:30 p.m. Attendance: 41,910.
National college football TV broadcasts had grown from two in 1979 to five in 1984. ESPN broadcast one game, a 4:30 p.m. kickoff between Navy and Arkansas. And TBS, briefly involved in college football, aired the Texas A&M vs. Auburn game at 9 a.m. No football game that started after 4:30 p.m. in Tucson was broadcast.
So what was broadcast rather than football in 1984? ESPN aired Davis Cup tennis from noon to 3 p.m.
- Sept. 29, 1990, Cal at Arizona, 3:30 p.m. The Los Angeles-based Prime Ticket cable network set a risky mid-afternoon kickoff time in Tucson, although the day’s high temperature, 92, made it bearable.
The ’90s were the beginning of much higher finances in college football television. Nine games were televised nationally that day with a triple-header on Prime Ticket (Duke-Clemson; Arizona-Cal; Air Force-San Diego State).
The hunger to be part of the growing college football-TV business was as acute in Tucson as anywhere,
The day before the Cal-Arizona game, Channel 11 announced it planned to televise the game live. Prime Ticket attorneys turned blue. Both claimed they had priority agreements with the Pac-10.
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said neither had No. 1 choice. Hansen said ABC had the first option, Prime Ticket second and local carriers such as Channel 11 were third in line.
A Tucson judge held a hearing the day before the game. No one backed down.
To get those No. 3 rights, Channel 11 was paying Arizona $1.25 million over five years. That seems laughably small now, but not on game day, 1990. Channel 11 called the Pac-10’s bluff and televised the game anyway.
What created such a frenzy? Arizona was ranked No. 16. It sold 52,731 tickets, the highest figure of all Sept. 29 games ever played in Tucson. (UA lost to the Bears).
- Sept. 29, 2001, Washington State at Arizona, 7 p.m. Another Tucson independent outlet, Channel 58, televised the game live. Only 42, 729 attended on an unusually hot day of 99 degrees.
The number of live national college football telecasts had grown to 13. ESPN2 had become a regular on football Saturdays. So was Fox Sports Arizona and its other regional outlets. Prime Ticket had long since ebbed.
One sticking point: The Pac-10 had a firm resolve not to broadcast league games opposite one another. It believed that fracturing audiences would eliminate interest.
That “no competition” clause would die bit by bit and ultimately be abolished by commissioner Larry Scott.
- Sept, 29, 2007, Washington State at Arizona, 7 p.m. A crowd of 50,945 attended a game broadcast live by Fox Sports Arizona. The number of national telecasts had grown to 18 as DirecTV and Dish established a presence.
An independent cable network – Versus – had picked up where Prime Ticket left off, broadcasting a double-header of Baylor-Texas A&M followed by Cincinnati-San Diego State.
The Pac-10’s no-compete rule meant that the ASU-Stanford game was shown on a delayed basis at 10:30 p.m., by Fox Sports Arizona.
- Sept. 29, 2012, Oregon State at Arizona, 7 p.m. — College football had become a round-the-clock enterprise. There were 28 games broadcast nationally that day. The No. 18 Beavers and Wildcats drew just 44,153 as the viewing opportunities multiplied.
CBS and NBC created sport-only cable outlets, which enabled Sept. 29 games between Penn-Dartmouth and Army-Stony Brook to be shown nationally.
- Sept. 29, 2018, USC at Arizona, 7:30 p.m. – Media rights fees have grown so swiftly that the old “no compete” days of the Pac-10 seem like decades ago.
When the Wildcats and Trojans meet at Arizona Stadium, viewers will be able to watch the finish to the 5:30 Washington-BYU game on Fox, or choose the 7 p.m. Pac-12 Network game involving ASU-Oregon State or the 7:30 Oregon-Cal game on Fox Sports1.
Good luck finding the Davis Cup.
