Ignore Football Tickets, See TV Guide for Times

On your handy little USC pocket schedule, it says the Trojans’ home football game against California on Oct. 22 will start at 12:30 p.m.

But note the asterisk in front of the time. Down below, it explains, “game times are subject to change.”

Game times in college football are about as stable as an Elizabeth Taylor marriage. The reason, of course, is television money.

It was announced Tuesday that the Cal-USC game will start at 3:30 p.m. so that it can be televised by the Prime Network. The game will be carried here by Prime Ticket and by Prime Network’s other regional affiliates across the country.

So if you have tickets to that game and were planning a dinner party that night, you might want to reconsider the menu. The game won’t end until about 7.

Earlier this season, the home game against Baylor was tentatively scheduled for 12:30 p.m. but was changed to 7 p.m. and televised by Prime Ticket. So USC fans had to change dinner plans for that night too.

“The time changes really mess you up,” said Jim Knight of La Canada, USC class of 1970 and a longtime season ticket-holder. “I have four tickets and we always invite another couple. But in some cases we can’t tell them what time until a week before the game.”

Usually, television times are set 12 days in advance, but occasionally only six days in advance. USC and UCLA alert media outlets and send postcards to season ticket-holders whenever a tentative time is changed.

“I think the postcard usually arrives about a week in advance,” Knight said.

Also on Oct. 22, UCLA plays at Arizona in what was supposed to be a 7 p.m. game. But on Tuesday it was added to ABC’s list of regional telecasts and will now start at 12:30 p.m.

On Monday, it appeared that the UCLA-Arizona game wasn’t going to be televised live at all in Los Angeles, after ABC had selected Washington at Oregon as its West Coast regional game.

Prime Ticket couldn’t televise UCLA-Arizona at 7 because Oct. 22 is the one Saturday Prime Network has a Pac-10 doubleheader. The games selected on Monday were Cal-USC at 3:30 and Washington State at Arizona State at 7, and Prime Ticket is obligated to carry both.

But after ABC was informed of the situation late Monday, it picked up UCLA-Arizona, even though that game had become less attractive because of UCLA’s four-game losing streak and Arizona’s loss to Colorado State last Saturday. ABC will still televise Washington State-Arizona State as well to most of the West Coast.

Generally speaking, television wants the flexibility to be able to pick games as late as possible so that it isn’t stuck with a dog.

ABC picks a certain number of so-called “can’t miss” games before the season.

Four USC games were selected by ABC last summer, locking in kickoff times for the Washington home game on Sept. 3, the Penn State road game on Sept. 10, this Saturday’s 4 p.m. game at Stanford, and the Notre Dame game, which will be played Nov. 26 at the Coliseum at 5 p.m.

ABC locked in only two early-season UCLA games--the home game against Tennessee and the road game against Nebraska.

UCLA handles the problem of changing game times by not listing any on its pocket schedules. But the school does take a stab at them in its media guide.

For example, the time listed for a Sept. 24 game against Washington State appeared in the media guide as 3:30/7 p.m. The game was played at 3:30 and carried as a Prime Network “Pacific 10 Game of the Week.”

So UCLA was half right.

Of course the schools don’t like to irritate their fans. But they also want television’s money.

And there is one plus for fans. Almost all USC and UCLA games are now televised live, either on ABC, the Prime Network, Prime Ticket or ESPN.

All but one USC game has been televised live since the 1989 season, and all but five UCLA games have been televised live during that span.

It wasn’t so long ago that each school had only a couple of live telecasts a season.

Also, the money that television pays the schools is substantial.

ABC pays $520,000 for a regional Pac-10 game, 55% to be split by the two participating schools and 45% to be divided among all 10 conference schools. Each participating school ends up with about $166,000.

The same formula applies for Prime Network telecasts, with each participant getting about $145,000 out of a $485,000 rights fee.

Locally based Prime Ticket has separate deals with USC and UCLA that include all sports, with each school to provide at least two live football telecasts a season.

Pinpointing an exact Prime Ticket rights fee per game would be difficult, says the network’s programming chief, Don Corsini. But it’s six figures.

As for causing an inconvenience to ticket-holders, Corsini said, “We try to work as far in advance as possible so the schools can get out the word on any time changes.”

That usually works out to 12 days in advance. ABC gets first crack. ESPN, which only occasionally does a Pac-10 game, gets second choice, then Prime Network and finally Prime Ticket.

Season-ticket sales and attendance at both USC and UCLA are down. USC averaged 76,063 in 1988, and UCLA averaged 63,264 the same year. Last season, the averages were 59,021 for USC and 50,246 for UCLA.

A lot of factors have contributed to that--team records, less attractive opponents, more live telecasts and the recession. Changing game times, more prevalent in recent years, hasn’t helped.

But as long as television doles out the money, the colleges aren’t going to change anything--except game times.