The USC-Arizona game for the Pac-12 tournament championship on Saturday night on Fox Sports 1 was the second-lowest rated and second-least-watched Pac-12 title game since the tournament resumed in 2002. It drew 612,000 viewers, which is less than the West Coast Conference and Atlantic 10 Conference finals.

Now for some context: The real culprit is Fox Sports 1. The USC-Arizona game was actually up 58 percent in audience size from the 2016 Oregon-Utah Pac-12 title game on Fox Sports 1.

When the game is on ESPN, it does much better. Last year’s Oregon-Arizona game drew 2.1 million on ESPN.

But the real, real culprit is Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, who allows conference title games on Fox Sports 1, which has less viewers than ESPN. And remember, when Fox does the Pac-12 football championship game, it prefers it to be on a Friday night.

More details are available here at Sportsmediawatch.com.