Card Clicks: Stanford Football Schedule Irks Fans

by Scott Allen on Jan 5, 2026 6:36 AM PST

Stanford and Cal will play Big Game in October for the first time after Sandy Barbour and Bob Bowlsby get out-voted. | SF Chronicle

The reaction to the schedule on the Stanford Football Facebook page was predictably negative. | Facebook

Cal fans are equally annoyed. | CGB

Mark Purdy says the Pac-12 presidents are to blame. | Mercury News

An 8-4 season seems like a reasonable goal for the Stanford football team in 2012. | SF Chronicle

Chris Dufresne warns mommas not to let their babies grow up to be kickers. | LA Times

Returning to Stanford was the right call for Andrew Luck. | Stanford Football Blog

Stanford basketball, the Cardinal football fan base turns its somber eyes to you. The Cardinal men play their first road game since Dec. 1 at Oregon. | Rivals

The Ducks are concerned about Stanford's length on defense. | Register-Guard

The No. 4 Stanford women host Oregon at Maples Pavilion. | GoStanford

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Mark Purdy is right

But I would be willing to be that despite Larry Scott’s claims that there’s “national clearance” for all of these games, we still won’t be able to watch many of the games on regular TV in DC. Found this out the hard way for several games on ABC this year. National clearance doesn’t trump regional preference. Pretty tired of all of Larry Scott’s antics up to this point.

by CardiGrl on Jan 5, 2026 7:45 AM PST reply actions

That's been exactly my concern since he announced national games

What assurance do we have that ABC/ESPN/FOX don’t use their regional models for their games like they do now? Parts of the country missed Oregon-Stanford two years ago, and parts missed Stanford-USC this year. ESPN attempted to mitigate that by claiming that fans could watch on ESPN3, but who wants to watch 3.5 hours of football on a 15" laptop screen where half the time is spent looking at ESPN’s “We’ll be right back” message?

I have no doubt that the Pac-12 network(s) will broadcast nationally games they are contracted to air. If Scott had gotten assurances from the other networks that national games were broadcast (re: TELEVISED) to 100% of the country and not regionally blacked out to accommodate closer schools, that’s one thing. But we’ve never got any such assurances, and if people are again relegated to ESPN3, this will all be for naught and there will be many, many upset people. As it is, all the DirecTv people are still biting their nails waiting for some sort of deal to even get the national Pac-12 Network, much less the regional ones.

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by RedOscar on Jan 5, 2026 11:04 AM PST up reply actions

Yes, this has been a huge problem for East Coasters

Fortunately, we figured out how to watch the games on the TV through ESPN on Xbox, but you’re right, it’s no fun to watch that way. It’s the same two commercials, not easy to FF or rewind, and there’s a ton of dead air time (I still don’t get why they do this, BTW). Not to mention that another compromise for “national clearance” is to have the games at night. I can’t tell you how many non-Stanford friends I talked to after the Fiesta Bowl told me they fell asleep before the game was over. What makes matters worse is that the games we’re forced to watch instead of these Pac-12 games out here often feature inferior teams and games. After living here for 5 years, I can truly understand why there’s an East Coast bias, and I think all of Larry Scott’s efforts to increase exposure and revenue are only playing into that bias, not working to correct it. If the games truly are nationally televised (and not regionally selective), east coasters could see some Pac-12 football, but I highly doubt that will happen.

by CardiGrl on Jan 5, 2026 11:24 AM PST up reply actions

forgot to mention

There was at least one game (San Jose State, I believe?) that was “televised” but completely inaccessible via regular cable. I don’t remember the specifics, but we actually had to go to a bar to watch (and there was only really one bar that had it available).

by CardiGrl on Jan 5, 2026 11:26 AM PST up reply actions