As the Pac-12 re-launches this college football season, it will be the only FBS conference to not host traditional football media days or an official preseason kickoff event this summer.
Over the next four weeks, the other nine leagues will welcome national and local media outlets around the country as hype builds for the upcoming season, beginning with the the Big 12’s football media days in Frisco, Texas, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The ACC, SEC, and Big Ten will host their own media days or kickoff events in the following three weeks, respectively, welcoming hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of credentialed media members.The other five non-power conferences (American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt) have various preseason media days planned during the second third weeks of July.
But the Pac-12, which will expand from two to eight football programs this fall, is opting to buck the longtime trend of gathering conference executives, coaches, and players in a hotel ballroom or convention center for several days for reporters to quiz them about the biggest topics on and off the field.
“We could have,” Pac-12 senior VP and deputy commissioner Rick Hart said last month. “We talked about it. Those are expensive.”
