PAC Weather Impact

[Duck 1972]

I have been wondering why the PAC doesn't seem to be on the same level as the Mid West and South in football?

 

Does the weather differences of Washington / Oregon wet and cold California. / Arizona hot and dry Utah / Colorado dry cold especially altitude effect how we seem to eat each other up?

 

Along with our 9 team league  schedule, difficulty recruiting do to population, not having a lot of those teams coming out West to play and feeding off that the time differences when we play at their stadiums.

 

What do u all think causes it?

[latracey]

More important than weather differences, or change in stadium environment, I think the very poor quality and the lack of consistency in Pac 12 officiating is the main reason that the Pac 12 eats each other up year in and year out.

 

As someone who regularly watches as many Pac 12 games on a weekend as I can, I find that there are terrible, game changing/deciding calls that happen way too frequently in way too many games. It's painfully obvious that the officiating in our league is much, much worse than it is in any other conference in America.

 

It is a problem that Larry Scott at least addressed, and one that needs to be rectified by the new Pac 12 Commissioner  George Kliavkoff.

Edited November 6, 2021 by latracey

[David Marsh]

The pac-12 is the most geographically diverse conference in the country. We cover more biomes than any other conference by far. 

 

Where most conferences are pretty much laid out east-west they sit on relatively the same lines of latitude... Or at the very least within a very narrow bandwidth. 

 

The PAC is laid out across a much greater range of latitude. Just think we have the LA schools AND the PNW schools in the same conference. The range of temperatures and weather alone is pretty great from that alone. 

 

The only other conference that has a similar north-south layout is the ACC where it goes from Miami Florida to Syracuse New York. 

 

However, the ACC is pretty closely tied to the Atlantic coast and coastal temperatures tend to be more stable with less variance than continental temperatures. 

 

Now the continenantal conferences are the B1G, and to a lesser degree the big-13 and SEC. Though all these conferences are really laid out as states above east-west so the variation isn't so great on the whole. 

 

Then there is the final thing that makes the variation of climate and weather in the PAC so great... Mountains. Mountains act as a great divider and change weather themselves. Where Oregon, Oregon state, Washington and the California schools are all coastal we have one set of variations in temperature and weather. Cross the mountains and the biomes change to high desert or in the case if the Arizona schools... Just desert. 

 

Then on top of it all Utah and Colorado are so far away from the coast that they are Continental and suffer from the wide range in temperature variations across seasons. 

 

In short the pac-12 has the most range in longitude and latitude which creates the most variance for our teams to play in. 

 

Well ... That might answer your question. At the very least is allowed me to use my UO geography degree for a few minutes. 

[30Duck]

On 11/6/2021 at 1:34 PM, David Marsh said:

Well ... That might answer your question. At the very least is allowed me to use my UO geography degree for a few minutes. 

 

That definitely showed some "academic prowess"

[mrspenney]

For many years the Pac 12 was dominated by SC and to a lesser extent UCLA and during the Don James era the Huskies.  When I attended the U of O we learned how to lose except in baseball and T & F.  Consistent winning actually started with Bellotti, but nationally people only paid attention to the LA schools.  The rise of the Ducks has been awesome and it is sinking in nationally, but it will help to have a decent program in an LA school.

 

I think Utah being on the rise helps, and it would be nice if ASU could put it together.  It also hurts that the Pac 12 network is not a national factor.  I have high hopes for the future of the conference led by the new commissioner.  I think the shall I say joining of the ACC, Big 10 and Pac 12 will be extremely helpful.  THE FUTURE LOOKS GREAT TO ME

[Steven A]

On 11/6/2021 at 1:34 PM, David Marsh said:

The pac-12 is the most geographically diverse conference in the country. We cover more biomes than any other conference by far. 

 

Where most conferences are pretty much laid out east-west they sit on relatively the same lines of latitude... Or at the very least within a very narrow bandwidth. 

 

The PAC is laid out across a much greater range of latitude. Just think we have the LA schools AND the PNW schools in the same conference. The range of temperatures and weather alone is pretty great from that alone. 

 

The only other conference that has a similar north-south layout is the ACC where it goes from Miami Florida to Syracuse New York. 

 

However, the ACC is pretty closely tied to the Atlantic coast and coastal temperatures tend to be more stable with less variance than continental temperatures. 

 

Now the continenantal conferences are the B1G, and to a lesser degree the big-13 and SEC. Though all these conferences are really laid out as states above east-west so the variation isn't so great on the whole. 

 

Then there is the final thing that makes the variation of climate and weather in the PAC so great... Mountains. Mountains act as a great divider and change weather themselves. Where Oregon, Oregon state, Washington and the California schools are all coastal we have one set of variations in temperature and weather. Cross the mountains and the biomes change to high desert or in the case if the Arizona schools... Just desert. 

 

Then on top of it all Utah and Colorado are so far away from the coast that they are Continental and suffer from the wide range in temperature variations across seasons. 

 

In short the pac-12 has the most range in longitude and latitude which creates the most variance for our teams to play in. 

 

Well ... That might answer your question. At the very least is allowed me to use my UO geography degree for a few minutes. 

Add in altitude of mile high in Utah and Colorado.

[DrJacksPlaidPants]

On 11/6/2021 at 4:34 PM, David Marsh said:

The pac-12 is the most geographically diverse conference in the country. We cover more biomes than any other conference by far. 

 

You are so correct. Even if you traveled the state of Washington from Spokane to Forks you can go through temperate forests, snow, desert and rain forest in about 5 hours of driving.

[David Marsh]

On 11/6/2021 at 2:57 PM, Steven A said:

Add in altitude of mile high in Utah and Colorado.

My hands were getting tired from writing at that point. 

 

But absolutely a great point.