Will Pac-12 earlier start times help Mountain West TV ratings?

The Pac-12 has been looking to boost their TV ratings and move away from those 10 to 10:30 p.m. ET starts for games on the Pac-12 Networks, and have game time starts at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. The games themselves will not be announced until that 10-day window.

While games on the Pac-12 Network are not the most high profile games, for the most part, but those 11 a.m. PT times are not going to include Oregon vs. USC, or Washington vs. UCLA. More likely, Utah vs. Washington State or Cal vs. Arizona. Not poor games but nothing Earth-shattering.

Then add in that the Pac-12 Networks are not fully distributed across the country, but even with those items this could help the Mountain West television ratings. The Mountain West is not going to have any 12 p.m. ET kick off start times, or it will be extremely rare, but there will be the 10 p.m. between 10:30 p.m. ET kick time.

There will be less games on television during that late window and being out West those Pac-12 football fans could tune into Air Force vs. Wyoming or San Diego State vs. Fresno State around 7 p.m. local time would be a boon for the Mountain West.

Who really knows what the boost will be but it makes sense that if there are less games -- even on a much lesser distributed network -- football fans will find football and help the Mountain West's profile. The only games that will be on at that 10 p.m. ET kick will be the Mountain West, BYU and probably still some Pac-12 games but just less of them.

This is a good move for the Pac-12 who want more earlier kickoff times and the trickle down effect will help the Mountain West get more eyeballs with less of the late night kick offs.