This year is the last Pac-12 title game in Santa Clara. Here are three better places for the game
The Pac-12 has struggled with bad officiating, bad press for the Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and, the lack of a crowd at the Pac-12 football title game last December. Pro tip: Try not holding the game amid rush hour traffic in the Bay Area.
To say things haven’t been going so well is a healthy understatement. But Friday brought some good news.
The San Francisco 49ers and Pac-12 Conference announced that they would be ending their agreement to host the 2020 Pac-12 championship game at Levi’s Stadium. Say it with me folks, hallelujah.
So what’s next for the conference’s title game beyond 2019?
There’s only three legitimate options here. Two of these options are actually very good, the other one is bad… very bad.
Option No. 1: Vegas, baby!
There is no stadium that’s as enticing than the new stadium being built for the Las Vegas Raiders that’s slated to open in 2020. It makes sense, it gives you a legitimate Las Vegas footprint (the Las Vegas Bowl is trash and we all know it). So now when the New Year’s Six eventually puts a bowl game out that way, it’s Pac-12 territory. A solid footprint in in a place that’s not California. Everybody wins.
Option No. 2: The new LA stadium
Come 2020, the Rose Bowl and LA Coliseum are getting a new stadium sibling in the form of the Rams/Chargers facility in Inglewood. It’s a shiny, brand new building that could use some collegiate flair in its first year. It’s not a bad option and once again, as long as you don’t hold it at 5 p.m. on a Friday night, it might actually work.
Option No. 3: Home field advantage
Has the Pac-12 done this before? Sure, is having the higher ranked team host the title game a terrible option?
You’re damn right it is. I don’t expect the Pac-12 to get to this point as the Vegas and LA stadiums are just too enticing. If and a very big if, in case the Pac-12 fails to make a deal with either stadium it’s a devastating blow.
Real football conferences don’t do this. Ask the Big 12, Big Ten or SEC about that.
So if the Pac-12 is to be seen as one of the big boys, you’ve got to have it on a neutral site. Make it happen.