There has certainly been some hullabaloo from Pac-12 fans about kickoffs happening at.. unusual times. It seems like the fan reaction to these extreme game times have trickled up to the ivory towers of the Pac-12 headquarters in San Francisco as Commissioner Larry Scott took some time at the Pac-12 Championship game to discuss fanbase sentiment.
For past several years, the Pac-12 has enjoyed very late kickoffs; this year, Cal had five games that kicked off at or after 7 p.m. Pacific time. The motivation of these late games was presumably to capture audiences without having to compete with other games in an attempt to bring more eyes to our West Coast football.