The Pac-12’s got bigger problems than Larry Scott’s genius.

The West Coast comes up a little bit short in the fan enthusiasm department this spring.

But let’s be fair: The Pac-12 will never be on equal footing when it comes to Tier 1 money … assuming all three conferences are in the same contract cycle … because of the difference in fan passion and market penetration for advertisers, and there is a very clear and recent example to illustrate this situation:

Spring game attendance.

It’s not the only measure of passion — and passion means ratings and market penetration and advertising dollars for the networks — but it’s a pretty darn good one.

Nobody should expect the Pac-12 to draw at SEC and B1G levels, but the difference is more striking than you might think…

Oregon scrimmages this weekend and should have the largest crowd in the conference, by a significant margin. I’ve included the Ducks below, even though it’s a projection, because it paints a more complete picture of the Pac-12’s spring attendance relative to the other conferences.

It would have been unfair to exclude the biggest crowd just because of timing.

But even with the Ducks, the Pac-12 has just two of the top-25 crowds … and seven of the bottom 10.

If the fans don’t care, the cable service providers won’t either.

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Those were the days, my friend.

Hey, remember when everyone hailed Larry Scott as a genius?  Good times.

Maybe money really can’t buy you happiness.

“They want to do all their stuff in the dark.”

According to Mike Leach, there isn’t a coach in the Pac-12 who is in favor of shutting down satellite camps.  And yet, the Pac-12 representative, UCLA athletic Dan Guerrero, voted to do just that.  Why?  Let the Pirate explain:

“The committee. Well who did it? Them. Well, who’s them? We can’t tell you who them is. They want it shrouded by secrecy. I think we need as much exposure to this as possible…”

The truth is out there.  Yar!

Best ring, or best ring ever?

Stanford’s ring commemorating its seal-clubbing of Iowa in the Rose Bowl is the shiznit.

If I ever start another blog, I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist using Intellectual Brutality as the name for it.

Thursday morning buffet

Enjoy part of the culture at GTP with this morning’s servings.

• Gus visits Art Briles.  Maybe he’s just a big fan of Baylor basketball.
• The NCAA’s gonna NCAA.
• A few tips from a team’s new coordinator on installing a new offense.
• Georgia Tech’s recruiting is even more Chantastic than you thought.
• With each passing day, the genius of Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott becomes ever more genius-ier.
• Kirby really wants to hear from you about G-Day QBR, folks:  “Y’all email my secretary. She’ll send them to me. I’m sure there’s a lot in here smarter than me with quarterback play.”  Based on message boards and comment threads, I can vouch for that.
• Those of you who think you’ve shared enough life experience to know how every twenty-year old college athlete should behave ought to see this.  (You really don’t, in other words.)  Not to mention it makes for a pretty jarring juxtaposition with this.

You don’t have to be lonely at the Rose Bowl.

How can you not love Stanford’s band?

If I were an Iowa fan, I would have appreciated the halftime distraction. Any halftime distraction.

Tuesday morning buffet

Been a while since I’ve stocked up the breakfast bar.

• Does anyone believe Larry Scott when he says, “Very, very low on the totem pole is what’s best to get a team in the playoff.”?
• Herbie runs his mouth again, apologizes..
• James Carville says it’s time for a fan bill of rights.  Not gonna happen.
• Continuing problems with the Neyland Stadium turf?  I’m shocked, shocked to hear that.
• SEC Network’s Dari Nowkhah on the media’s preseason love for Auburn:  “But we believed the hype about Jeremy Johnson. We believed the hype about Will Muschamp.”  Well, whose fault is that?
• Miami goes with a search committee and a search firm in its hunt for a new coach.  Nice belt and suspenders approach there.  At least the AD will have plenty of people to blame if the hire flops.
• Further evidence that the people running college sports have no clue how to manage a dollar:  University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides said the school’s decision to pay Steve Spurrier for the remainder of his current contract year even though Spurrier resigned mid-season was made at least partially out of concern that it would end up having to pay him an even greater amount of money.
• Gosh, you’d think winning a national title and playing for another one this decade would make Auburn fans less grumpy than this.