On the eve of its return to competition, the Pac-12 unveiled a barrage of news and updates on Thursday, covering everything from game operations and the tiebreaker policy to the bowl lineup and injury reports.
Here’s a summary of the key developments:
— The conference made its bowl partnerships official for both the former and current members.
As previously reported on the Hotline, the 12 legacy schools will be tied to the Alamo, Las Vegas, Holiday, Sun, Poinsettia and Independence Bowls. (The pecking order will be determined by each team’s overall record. Conference records do not apply.)
The six new Pac-12 schools are affiliated with the Poinsettia and Hawaii Bowls and eligible for sports in the ESPN pools of games.
The two holdovers, Washington State and Oregon State, would compete on the new Pac-12 side of the Poinsettia matchup.
— The Pac-12 will provide player availability (i.e., injury) reports for both conference and non-conference games, with the first report coming three days prior to kickoff.
The reports will be made available to the public on Pac-12.com.
— TV broadcasts of home games will include segments with coaches and players wearing microphones as part of what the conference calls the “Pac-12 Field Pass.”
According to a news release, “the mic’d-up content will be produced by Pac-12 Enterprises for its broadcast partners with an internal process of review for quick turnaround in-game.”
Pac-12 Enterprises will produce 42 of the conference’s 50 home games, which air on CBS, CBS Sports Network, The CW and USA Sports.
— In continuing a trend that began with the ACC last year, Pac-12 home games will include live looks at the replay command center during the review process.
The content will be provided “when applicable and in partnership with Pac-12 broadcast partners.”
Additionally, David Coleman, the Pac-12’s longtime vice president for football officiating, will step down at the end of the season.
For the next three months, the conference said it will be “fully equipped with five officiating crews under contract, with the majority of its officials possessing prior (Power Four-level) officiating experience.”
— The conference has finalized the tiebreaker policy for berths in the Pac-12 championship game Dec. 4 (on the home field of the No. 1 seed).
With a seven-game, round-robin conference schedule, the situation isn’t overly complicated: Head-to-head result will trump everything.
In the event of multi-team ties in which there is no head-to-head advantage, step two is winning percentage against all common conference opponents, followed by each of the tied teams’ record against the next-highest placed opponent and continuing down the standings.
(Note: Results from the flex weekend on Nov. 28 do not count toward the conference standings.)
— Texas State president Kelly Damphousse will serve as chair of the Pac-12’s executive committee, with Colorado State president Amy Parsons as the vice chair. There will also be an at-large representative. All positions work on one-year terms.
San Diego State athletic director JD Wicker will serve as chair of the Pac-12’s AD committee, with Boise State’s Jeramiah Dickey as vice chair.
*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to wilnerhotline@
*** Follow me on the social media platform X: @WilnerHotline
The post On Media – Rebuilt Pac-12 reveals bowl lineup (old and new schools), tiebreaker policy, replay review look-ins, availability reports and more first appeared on Sports360AZ.
Leave a Reply