The Pac-12 has released the 2012 football schedule and there are some eye opening changes for Stanford fans.
The biggest change of all is the Big Game. The yearly rivalry game between Stanford and Cal has been moved from the third weekend in November to the third weekend in October. The game this year will be played on October 20th at the remodeled Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
“The October 20 date for Big Game is 2012 is certainly not our first choice but the conference is governed by the will of the majority and we have a duty to respect the outcome of the vote,” said Stanford’s Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics Bob Bowlsby in a statement. “We will work with California and the Pac-12 Office to advocate for the Big Game and all rivalry games to be scheduled toward the end of the season in future years.”
Other schedule quirks that stick out include USC in week three. Stanford will host USC on September 15th. At last check that is well before the students return for fall quarter.
Stanford will have the same non-conference schedule with games against San Jose State, Duke and Notre Dame. The Cardinal open the year on September 1st by hosting the Spartans, and then the Blue Devils on September 8th leading up to the USC game.
Stanford will also be featured on Thursday night football on September 27th at Washington. It will be the Cardinal’s first road game of the season.
With Cal and Notre Dame in October, Stanford will wrap up the season with a road trip to battle Oregon on November 17th and then wrap up the season at the Rose Bowl on November 24th against UCLA.
The Pac-12 had a lot of work to do putting the schedule together as the goal is to get every game on national television this season between contracts it has with ESPN, FOX and the soon to be launched Pac-12 Network. In order to spread out a good football schedule, accommodations were needed to be made by all.
Overall, the Pac-12 will play eight "specialty dates" on Thursday and Friday to be broadcast by ESPN and Fox.
The Pac-12 Championship game will be on November 30th at the home stadium of the number one seed.
Here is the complete Stanford 2012 football schedule. The start times to be determined at a later date.
9/1 SJSU
9/8 DUKE
9/15 USC
9/27 @WASHINGTON
10/6 ARIZONA
10/13@NOTRE DAME
10/20@CAL
10/27WASH STATE
11/3 @COLORADO
11/10OREGON STATE
11/17@OREGON
11/24@UCLA
11/30 Pac-12 Championship game
The entire conference schedule can be viewed here:
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