Trying to figure out Stanford's logic

The Pac-10 Conference, in conjunction with television partners FSN, ABC/ESPN and Versus, made its selections for Sept. 26 and did not select the Huskies' contest at Stanford as one of the three games in its weekly television package.

The Cardinal athletic department elected not to move off its standard game time of 6 p.m. and make a request for a league waiver for a local telecast - which could have provided the UW's partner, FSN Northwest, the rights to televise the game. The home team for all Pac-10 games controls the kickoff time when the game is not picked-up for a league television appearance.

FSN Northwest owns the UW's exclusive television rights, after the Pac-10 makes its weekly television selections. The network has the contractual obligation to televise every Husky game, provided the game time can be moved into a window that does not have a head-to-head conflict with a Pac-10 telecast.

If you are Pac 10 Commish Larry Scott you have to be taking a close look at this situation. Keeping conference teams from being televised for selfish reasons is not in the best interest of the conference. Every single game in the SEC is televised every single week and the Pac 10 should make every effort to follow suit in the next contract.

Stanford's official reason for not making the change is it would be inconvenience for their fans. They say the tickets were already printed with a 6:00 pm kickoff time and that is the reason they did not want to move the game back to 4:00 pm. The game wouldn't have generated much money for either school if it had been picked up so the Tee doesn't care. Coach Jim Harbaugh was never consulted.

This is a game that should be on TV and they should be working behind the scenes to obtain a waiver to make it happen. You can bet that Scott Woodward is still exploring every avenue out there to make it happen. One option is broadcasting it back directly to Seattle for closed circuit viewing at Hec Edmundson.