Big Game to October in 2012?
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PrintRemember this? Where I stressed about how Stanford may never again play USC with the students on campus because of the Notre Dame game, the California schools insisting on playing each other, Stanford and Cal refusing to play Big Game on Thanksgiving weekend, and the Pac-12 prohibiting non-conference games outside of the first three weeks of the season (save for Stanford and USC's Notre Dame games)?
It seems that Larry Scott and Kevin Weiberg (deputy commissioner of the conference) have come up with a solution. And it's more odious than anything I could have come up with. In essence, the possibility of Stanford playing a Thursday night game and Big Game in October next season are much more likely than they were 24 hours ago.
In his conversation, Weiberg revealed some new details:
"Given the complexities of the scheduling," Pac-12 deputy commissioner Kevin Weiberg told me today, "we can’t commit to having the rivalry games stay on Thanksgiving week or the weekend before Thanksgiving."
That's a twist that I thought wasn't possible back when I wrote about how the conference's Three Weeks Rule essentially forced Stanford into its (second) biggest rivalry game in September before classes start.
But that's alright. Moving Big Game one week earlier can't be that bad for one year, right?
Depending on the number of Saturdays in the fall, Weiberg said, there may be some years in which all six rivalry games can be scheduled for late November.
But 2012 is not one of them: At least one will move, and multiple sources said the Big Game is a distinct possibility.
..."It doesn’t all fit together in a neat and tidy package, so that all the rivalries can be slotted in the final two weeks," Weiberg said.
"Our preference is to keep them as (late) as we can. But it’s very likely that at least one will have to move up."
Hmm, that doesn't sound like it'll happen only one year. Why is this happening? The decision about which game to move is based partially on the Notre Dame games against Stanford and USC and some schools (i.e. the Bay Area) refusing to play their rivalry game Thanksgiving weekend.
That is all bad news. Really bad news. Not only does it mean that Big Game could be moved up, but USC-UCLA could end up moving as well, and given the amount of people ready to march on UCLA Athletics with torches and pitchforks at the moment, we may very well see a veritable bloodbath in the press if both California rivalries are disturbed from their usual spots.
Of course, if it means that USC-Stanford and UCLA-Cal are played as alternative season's ending rivalry games, then that may be a compromise. But who knows how the four schools treat this. For the record, I blame this on Notre Dame's insistence on playing their season closer in California. If they were willing to fit Stanford and USC in the first four weeks of the season, then I'm pretty sure that none of this schedule havoc (or the uproar that it's bound to cause) would be happening now.
Whether we like it or not, though, it sounds like Big Game is moving up in the schedule, and if Wilner's blog is correct, it could move to October. So what say you? How do you feel about moving up Big Game to so that there are potentially more than two conference opponents after Cal?
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I vote for telling Notre Dame to shove it
They need the Pac-12 games more than the Pac-12 needs them. They can play San Diego State to close the season if it’s so important to them.
Big Game in October is disgusting.
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. - R. Feynman
by GBB4188 on Nov 16, 2025 11:13 PM PST reply actions
If Notre Dame is the fly in the ointment regarding rivalry scheduling, then there is something seriously wrong with the world.
There is no logical or persuasive reason why scheduling can not accommodate rivalries on their traditional dates. Absolutely none. If nothing else, you simply schedule that game first, then arrange all other games around it. It’s actually very simple, though it demands a level of commitment from the P12 folks to preserve it.
The fact that theP12 scheduling office is even considering getting on it’s knees in order to help Notre Dame is just abhorrent. Since when does an unaffiliated program that has been all but irrelevant in the last decade dictate conference policy?
Unfortunately, seems that Larry Scott is more than willing to sell out tradition and the desires of individual fanbases in the pursuit of money.
Being an Old Blue means embracing the "meh".
by SoCal Oski on Nov 17, 2025 9:01 AM PST reply actions
If nothing else, you simply schedule that game first, then arrange all other games around it.
The problem there is that with the Pac-12’s requirement for all schools to play non-conference in the first three weeks, scheduling Big Game the weekend before Thanksgiving means that Stanford and USC’s rivalry game against each other must happen in September, even in years with 14 Saturdays, which is bad for a school on the quarter system with less than 7,000 undergraduates.
The Notre Dame games Thanksgiving weekend gives the conference an uneven number of available teams for conference play. It’s the same problem the Big Ten had before they added Nebraska. Since the conference doesn’t want teams to have byes before the championship game, they’d rather move rivalry games than force the schools to move up their Notre Dame games (for Stanford, it’d have to be moved up two weeks else it would interfere with the desire to have Big Game while students are still on their respective campuses).
Whatever decision they make, though, the conference will have to “force” a non-conference game on someone Thanksgiving weekend if the Notre Dame games can’t be moved. That’s the only way they can get everyone playing a game before the championship game while having an uneven number of conference teams. While I made the argument back in the Spring that that “someone” would be Stanford, in reality it could be any school, like Arizona this year.
by RedOscar on Nov 17, 2025 9:22 AM PST up reply actions
tear up the rule if its what is causing the problems….and what’s more having byes before the championship game would possibly make (gasp!) the Big Game the last game of the season (for some of us). Now why couldn’t we just do that and not screw with tradition and whore ourselves out for money?
"Our hearts shall sing and our voices ring for the dear old Blue and Gold!"
by Joe Bandsmen on Nov 17, 2025 9:44 AM PST up reply actions
Why wasn't this an issue this year?
I guess I don’t understand the problem here. And am I wrong, or have there been some years in recent memory when Big Game was not held in November, or when the Notre Dame game was not held on Thanksgiving weekend?
by CardiGrl on Nov 17, 2025 10:01 AM PST reply actions
This year
It wasn’t an issue this year for several reasons, primarily that Arizona had scheduled a non-conference game Thanksgiving weekend, giving the conference an even number of teams for games that weekend. Plus, the conference didn’t enforce the Three Weeks Rule this year, hence CU playing Ohio State for it’s fourth non-conference game and Pitt versus Utah in October. Conference play also started in Week 2 with USC against Utah in that “was it a touchdown?” game.
Big Game has for the vast majority of years been played the weekend before Thanksgiving. It’s been played Thanksgiving weekend a few years back in the middle of last century, and was even played on Thanksgiving for a handful of years. When the NCAA allowed 12 games in a schedule, Big Game was played after Thanksgiving week twice.
As for Notre Dame games, that is a recent development. Before (I want to say) 2000, Stanford played Notre Dame the second week of November a few times. When the new (now expired) contract was signed, that’s when the stipulation was made to make Notre Dame the final game for the Irish against Stanford in California similar to the way it’s schedule is set up against USC every other year. As it stands now, according to fbschedules.com, Stanford has already penned the Irish to visit Palo Alto Thanksgiving weekend in ’13 and ’15.
by RedOscar on Nov 17, 2025 10:21 AM PST up reply actions
I still hate
Big Game not being our last regular season game.
by dblecard on Nov 17, 2025 2:13 PM PST reply actions
This is just horrible.
"For eight long years have those lobster backs made you bite the dust. It is your turn now. Make them bite and bite hard. Play, every one of you until you drop in your tracks; and when you can’t play any longer, we’ll put another man in your place. If you are repulsed once, come at them again, harder." - Garrett Cochran, Big Game 1898
by CalBear81 on Nov 18, 2025 1:28 PM PST reply actions
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