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Report: Pac 12 considering bowl game in Australia for 2016 season

By Josh Hill

Nov 13, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the Pac-12 logo at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the NCAA football game between the California Golden Bears against the Southern California Trojans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 13, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the Pac-12 logo at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the NCAA football game between the California Golden Bears against the Southern California Trojans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Pac 12 is considering a bowl game in Australia for the 2016 season and that could be a game changer for making college football more global. 

The NFL is in the process trying to globalize their sport, but they’re not the only ones trying to get their game out there to the world. College Football is in no way in dire need of new fans, but there are places that the NCAA would like to bring their game if for nothing other than the novelty of it.

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According to ESPN’s Brett Murphy, the Pac 12 is considering a bowl game in Australia for the 2016 season.

"The Pac-12 had exploratory discussions about starting a bowl in Melbourne, Australia, this year, but is now targeting the 2016 season, sources said."

Why This Is A Stupid Idea

The only real reason to move a bowl game to Australia is to make it a glorified vacation. That’s why the Pro Bowl used to be in Hawaii and it’s why teams play exhibition games in places like Japan, Mexico City and other places. To compound the stupidity of this move, you’re talking about a Pac 12 team moving a sunny West Coach game to sunny Australia. It’s not like this game is being moved from Wyoming to Melbourne — it’s just the rich getting richer in terms of nice places to play a game of football.

There’s also the matter of travel. Fans will flock to a game in Australia, but it’s going to be a transit headache of the worst kind in so many ways. There’s the older fans looking for an excuse to go to Australia, there’s the average fan that wants to make this their memorable college trip and then there’s the crazy frat boys and sorority girls who will use this as a Spring Break primer.

These bowl games are about football, and making the destination a novelty is stretching the bounds a little too much.

Why This Is A Brilliant Idea

As easy as it is to harp on the game being a glorified vacation, it’s not the worst idea in the world. It may cheapen the game slightly by making it a destination game, but at the end of the day it’s a bowl game in Australia and most bowl games are lame and in need of some kind of gimmick to make it interesting.

It’s not like we’re talking about moving the National Championship Game to Australia, we’re talking about a Pac 12 bowl game that probably won’t mean much in the long run of things. If anything, this makes it mildly interesting, which is something we’ve seen work in past with other sports.

Look at what moving an NFL game to London each year turned into — it’s an annual thing that has expanded to the point where a team might end up there. The NBA is trying to do this with games in London and the NHL has long been popular all over Europe. The NCAA is an institution that whores itself out in every way it can, and if there is a silver lining in any of this, it’s that the student/athletes they consistently screw with violations would be given a free trip to Australia.

Will It Happen?

If the NCAA is thinking about doing anything, the chances are it’s going to happen. There is no one in the world who can tell the NCAA what to do, not a state, not a school and apparently not even a country. It’s not the worst idea in the world and while it might be a disaster in it’s infancy, moving these morning bowl games that no one watches to more interesting locations and giving us a reason to watch them is never a bad thing.

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