Pac 12 Schedule-Makers Messed Up This Week in Particular

It was about halfway through the Oregon–Arizona State game Friday night when I realized why Arizona State played two home games this week on Wednesday and Friday instead of the usual Thursday-Saturday Pac-12 schedule. It’s because of that little Super Bowl happening Sunday in Glendale, which is making things in the Phoenix metro area slightly more congested than usual.

And I immediately wondered why the Pac-12 was so dumb as to schedule Arizona State and Arizona to have two home games on Super Bowl weekend. It’s not like the NFL decided to hold the big game in the Phoenix area last week.

Nope, the Super Bowl has been scheduled to be in the Arizona Cardinals‘ home stadium since October 2011. Or, approximately four years before the game. And the Pac-12 still decided to have Arizona State host two home games this week. But moved the games up several days “to make it easier.”

I know that schedule-making is not an easy matrix. There are several things to take into consideration when determining who plays who and on which days. But if I’m the Pac-12 scheduling official, the first thing on my priority list for the 2014-15 conference season is making sure Arizona State doesn’t play at home during Super Bowl week!

This actually happened: the Arizona State schools played in Oregon less than a month ago. This weekend (sort of), the Oregon schools played in Arizona. If somehow the Pac-12 overlooked the Super Bowl before making the schedule matrix, then the home-away series could have been flipped as soon as the scheduling quirk was realized.

Or, the schedulers could have had the rivalry game versus Arizona this week. On Wednesday. In Tucson. Instead of to open conference play a month ago.

Making ASU and Arizona play two home games this week was the dumbest thing Pac-12 schedulers could have done this season. But there’s a chance to make amends. Next year, the San Francisco 49ers host Super Bowl 50. Hey, Pac-12, here it is in print: have Cal and Stanford play road games that week.

Alex Drude is a Pac-12 writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Alex_Drude. “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.