Pac-12 Football: 3 biggest storylines heading into spring 2020

There are so many storylines in Pac-12 football coming into the season. These are three storylines you should follow coming into the spring.

The Pac-12 is intriguing. Some of the storylines do not necessarily involve what happens on the field. The Pac-12 Network has not brought the revenue or viewership the university administrators or the conference commissioner thought. They have limited viewership and reach which affects recruiting.

That piece of business is outside the scope of the coaches and players.

The Pac-12 needs to change the narrative about it. Many of the conference’s off-field problems have affected the on-field product. Especially when many of the schools are getting a fraction of the revenue promised when the conference created the network almost a decade ago.

The narrative — that the Pac-12 does not play elite football — has hurt recruiting. In 2020, three of the top five recruits in from California did not go to a Pac-12 school. The Pac-12 kept four of the top five in 2019, but half the top 10 left Pac-12 country.

It’s 2020 and recruiting is a national competition, but the Pac-12 does not go into other conferences recruiting footprints the same way other conferences are raiding California, Arizona and the rest of Pac-12 country.

Part of the perception of the Pac-12 is they do not value football the way the Big Ten and SEC do. They value their reputation as the conference of Olympians as much as they do football, and the other members of the Power Five feel as if their Olympic sports benefit from football revenue.

Many Pac-12 schools have not invested in their football resources to the extent of schools like Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson and Georgia. To change this narrative, the Pac-12 needs to be in the playoff hunt later in the season. They have to get their television viewers in order as well.

There are several other storylines to explore when it comes to the Pac-12. Here are three to follow going into the season.