Week 9 TV Schedule

The entire Pac-12 in engaged in conference action this weekend; no byes, no non-conference contests, and almost all of the games are on Saturday! And no Thursday night chaos.

The only non-Saturday game is Friday night at 7 PM PDT, at the Santa Clara 49ers' Levi Stadium, which will also be the host of the Pac-12 Championship Game. It's kind of a trial run, and for Oregon, who will be visiting California, it really could be a trial run, as the Ducks remain the favorite to represent the Pac-12 North in the title game. Fox Sports 1 has the game, and it won't be interrupted by Fox coverage of the World Series, because that's being covered by "Big" FOX.

It could impact attendance though, and will impact traffic, as the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants will be playing at the same time just up the road in San Francisco.

Oregon St. is also in the bay area this weekend, and right smack in between these events, on El Camino Real, visiting the Farm Saturday for Stanford's Homecoming, Saturday at 12:30 PM. ESPN2 has the coverage, and It's the Beavers' first 12:30 start since early in the 2012 season.

The Pac-12 Saturday schedule, and the Pac-12 Network coverage schedule, actually starts at high noon in Boulder, CO, which is 11 AM PDT, with UCLA visiting Colorado.

The Pac-12 channel then switches to Pullman at 3 PM, an odd time that maximized uneven overlap with other games and therefore minimizes the audience, when Arizona visits Washington St.

The running battle to determine an opponent for what's probably going to be Oregon at Levi's Stadium in December will take on some clarity Saturday night, when USC visits Utah, for an 8 PM MDT start (7 PM PDT) in Salt Lake City, for the biggest game in a long time at Rice-Ecles. Fox Sports 1 will be there too, and again, the World Series will overlap one of the Conference's biggest contests.

The day (and night) wont wrap up until well after 11 PM PDT, as the schedule wraps up with Arizona St.'s Darkness Devils visiting Montlake for a 7:45 PM PDT start against Washington. This game will also have an impact on the Divisional races in both the Pac-12 North and South.

The weekend's football starts in earnest tonight (it actually started Tuesday night, with a Sun Belt battle), with ACC and C-USA games, and then 4 games on Friday night, which in addition to the Oregon-California contest, will also see BYU at Boise St., and as usual will run over 15 hours on Saturday, by the time the Nevada at Hawaii game ends, even later than the 2 Pac-12 night games.

Here's the complete national TV schedule, with times adjusted for East Coast Bias time.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com