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Oregon coach Dana Altman waits for interviews during the Pac-12 NCAA college basketball media day.

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanches)

EUGENE – After Oregon's victory against USC on Saturday evening, senior guard Jason Calliste saw the Ducks' 12-point victory as a turning point after UO's disastrous 2-6 start to Pac-12 play.

So when coach Dana Altman took his turn for postgame remarks at the podium after Calliste, the coach was asked if he, too, perceived the victory the same way for his 15-6 team. Instead of answering in the context of Oregon’s defensive struggles like Calliste, though, Altman pointed to the game as a different kind of milestone -- Oregon's first non-Sunday game in Pac-12 play -- and was blunt with his relief of its passing.

The Ducks played four straight weeks on a Sunday to open Pac-12 play before last week’s series with the Los Angeles schools. No other Pac-12 school will play that many consecutive Sunday games in conference play this season. So for Altman, the Saturday USC matchup allowed him to turn the page on four straight Sundays of games and headaches he says the conference's schedule presented to the Ducks' fans and personal schedules.

“I think we're one of the schools that maybe got more Sundays than anybody and I don't have all the stats in front of me but we got hammered pretty hard this year,” he said.

He’s right.

A breakdown of Pac-12 men's basketball schedules shows Oregon with the most Sunday games this season:

6: Oregon

5: Oregon State, UCLA, USC

4: Arizona, Colorado, Washington State

3: Arizona State, Stanford, Utah

2: California, Washington

Last season, Oregon played twice on Sundays. A year before that, three times. It’s part of the loosening of available dates for Pac-12 basketball games, an early initiative by commissioner Larry Scott to give Pac-12 schools more opportunities to play in front of television audiences relatively unopposed. The usual Thursday-Saturday schedule for hoops series ended after the 2010-11 season, and UO has played anywhere from Wednesday to Sunday since.

The increase in Sunday games may be because of a desire by the Pac-12 to showcase an Oregon team on the heels of an NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16 at times of maximum exposure.

But Saturday, in a critique of scheduling at large that included Thursday's 6 p.m. tipoff against UCLA -- "i

t's not easy to drive down from Portland, I understand that" --

Altman took special aim at that Sunday pedestal.

“Those guys needed a break,” Altman said of his players. “We haven't had a Sunday off. I hate to whine but guys need a day off every now and then. When you're playing on Sunday, Monday's not really a day off because they have all their academic requirements and early classes and I just, I like basketball on Saturdays.

"It's great because you can take Sundays and sleep in. I want those guys to be regular college students and enjoy the day. With all the Sunday games we've had that can't be possible.”

It might be cumbersome for coaches and players, but the revenues of the new schedule have undoubtedly aided UO’s bottom line. The Pac-12 agreed to a 12-year, $2.7-billion broadcast contract in 2011 with with Fox and ESPN -- the networks will combine to air four of UO’s six Sunday games -- that has increased UO’s revenue associated with television greatly in just two years. Also during that span the Pac-12 Networks, which carried the other two UO Sunday games, opened.

Oregon’s Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act filings from the fiscal year 2011 show it received nearly $12.1 million of revenue combined for direct payments for radio and television broadcasts and also its share of conference payouts, including “shares of conference television agreements.” In the latest filing available from the 2013 fiscal year, that combination of revenues for UO rose to $19.2 million.

“It's one of those things when you sign on to the contract your negotiating power isn't very high,” Altman said. “… I hope they look at it because Saturday games, the crowds … Saturday's just a better day for basketball. I hope that we'll have a few more Saturdays but again when you sign those contracts and the expectations with TV, they've got their slots and they tell you where to go.”

The figures in the filings aren’t a perfect measurement because they include payments for bowl games and tournaments, but they offer a picture of UO’s intake from television deals that dictate where and when the Ducks play.

And the picture is good for the university, even if its basketball coach would make the case it hasn’t helped his team.

In the comments: What do you think of the timing for Oregon's Sunday games this season?