Thursday, 2:51 p.m., from sunny midtown Tucson, temperature on my patio: 70 degrees. Awesome.
After home-standing Oregon appealed to the Pac-10 and to Fox Sports Net to televise its Nov. 15 game in prime time against Arizona, the Ducks today learned they have been rebuffed.
Kickoff for the game at Autzen Stadium is 4:30 p.m., Tucson time. It remains unclear if Fox Sports Net Arizona will be permitted to televise the game at all.
Ridiculously, FNA chose to televise the Washington-UCLA game in its 8:15 p.m. (Tucson time) window on Nov. 15, a game between hopeless losers with — ta da! — the Los Angeles and Seattle TV audiences.
The Pac-10’s 1:30 p.m. (Tucson time) ABC game on Nov. 15 is to be Cal-Oregon State. The 5 p.m. (Tucson time) Versus network broadcast matches Stanford and USC.
The winner amid this clutter are the 57,000 fans who are expected to pack Autzen Stadium. A mid-November night game in the Willamette Valley is absurd; it can be expected to be 40 degrees, foggy and rainy.
If all goes as expected, the UA-Oregon game is likely to identify a Pac-10 team capable of finishing second or third in the conference. Not putting it on one of the league’s TV carriers seems to be — what’s the word I’m looking for here? — foolish.
