Pac-12 rallies behind scenes
1. Arizona, ASU, Utah and Colorado were reported late last week to be leaning into a possible contingency escape to the Big 12 themselves, but I’m told by a high-ranking official at one of those universities to pump the brakes on that speculation.
“There is no meeting on the books for us with the Big 12,” the source said, “and George is kicking ass.”
2. Former Fox Sports Network president Bob Thompson told me last week that he estimated the Pac-12’s next media rights contract would command $500 million a year before the defection. With the Los Angeles’ television market gone, Thompson says the Pac-12’s media value is reduced to $300 million a year.
That appears to be a 40-percent wholesale discount. But it pencils out to a 28 percent reduction, per university, given that the $300 million would now be split only
10 ways ($30 million each) vs. $500 million being split
12 ways ($41.6 million each).
3. Any
potential university (Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, etc.) that might be added to the Pac-12
needs to bring more than $30 million in annual media revenue value (or take a steep discount) for the numbers to work. Notre Dame, for example, works. It’s why the Big Ten is so busy chasing the Irish. Boise State? Probably not, unless it takes a deeply discounted cut. There are only 517,000 television homes in Idaho. Currently, Boise State is getting $4 million a year from CBS and FS1 as part of their contract with the Mountain West Conference. “They probably deserve more than that for what they bring to the MWC,” Thompson said, “but I’d have a hard time ascribing much more than $8 million if they were to join the Pac-12.”
4. Pac-12 issued a statement on Tuesday morning, indicating that its board had authorized the conference to “immediately” begin negotiations for the next media rights agreement. Sounds like the Pac-12 already has a media partner (ESPN? Apple?) and is ready to move forward with a new plan. My hunch is the Pac-12 accelerated the negotiation because it has some specific additional conference additions (from the Big 12? ACC?) in mind.
5. Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown may throw a wrinkle into the UO plans. There’s been some speculation that she might step in and attempt to force the Ducks to stay in lockstep with Oregon State. Some lawmakers in Washington have indicated they’d do the same on Washington State’s behalf.
6. A source at UCLA told me that the discussions with the Big Ten got intense about eight weeks ago. Also, I’m told that USC and UCLA didn’t communicate with each other about their Pac-12 departures until “the 11th hour” when Bruins’ AD
Martin Jarmond and Trojans’ AD
Mike Bohn got on the phone together. Said one source, “I can’t believe this didn’t get leaked.”
Ducks covet Big Ten or SEC invite.
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