Realignment Update

[EastStang]

Win the AAC repeatedly. Go to playoffs. Someone will find a seat for us.

[BUS]

What Eaststang said.

[redpony]

and how long do you want to stay in this cess-pool of a conference? 4-5 years.
Most likely by then there will only be two major conferences- B1G and the SEC. the rest will be left overs and be like the MWC. Just my opinion.

[Peruna Power]

It’s movement day…

Pac 12 Presidents meeting this AM to have media deal presented to them.

University of AZ board of regents meeting this afternoon to review P12 media deal and decide whether to stay or bolt to Big 12.

If they leave conference is toast. If they stay, P12 expected to expand immediately to keep a 10 team conference in 2024, with SDSU the likely add. Hopefully us as well, or at least us and 1 other school for 2025.

Expecting the worst, but hoping for the best… Good luck gentlemen!

[Topper]

Win the AAC repeatedly. Go to playoffs. Someone will find a seat for us.

I wish that the world was fair but that isn't how it will work. As in the NCAA tournament, the Big conferences will gobble up more than their share of playoff spots. We are in a conference that is left with crumbs playing a schedule full of teams of no national interest. The minor conferences will suffer in attendance and with recruiting interest as always. Our NIL folks are great and have demonstrated great generosity. But a major conference affiliation wins a lot of recruiting battles. Unfortunately we are now associated as being on par with UNT.

[SMUstang]

I disagree, we are likely more associated with Navy or Tulane than UNT. Hardly being on par with UNT with a 35-1-6 record with them over the years.

[orguy]

I disagree, we are likely more associated with Navy or Tulane than UNT.

Definitely not associated with either Tulane or Navy. Sadly.

[EastStang]

If PAC doesn't work out, what's to prevent, Navy, SMU, Temple Tulane, Memphis (maybe Rice and/or USF) from combining with AFA, SDS, and Army to form a conference. Not a horrible TV deal. If PAC does blow up, you can add Cal, Stanford, WSU, OSU, USU and ASU. Call it Sea to Shining Sea conference. No worse the Big XII.

[mtrout]

Kliavkoff needs to go. They should poach Aresco.

[EastStang]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/sources-big-ten-has-begun-preliminary-talks-to-potentially-add-oregon-washington-cal-and-stanford-173934989.html

It looks like the PAC is now every man for himself. The remaining marquee schools are talking to the Big Ten. The four corner schools are talking to the Big XII which leaves OSU and WSU on an island.

[DiamondM75]

Can we jettison some of the lesser new members ( ie UNT) of the AAC and pick up OSU and WSU?

[max the wonder dog]

Canzano Talks TV Deals -- No Paywall

Canzano: TV picking apart college football
Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal on block next?
John Canzano
Aug 2

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The Pac-12 still doesn’t have a TV deal. (Photo: JohnCanzano.com)

I get it. Television is a business. Media companies have profits to turn and money to make. But in the end, I’m left wondering if TV cares about the wreckage the industry is causing in pursuit of it.

The Pac-12 is in trouble.

The conference has made some strategic errors, blown the messaging and overplayed its hand. But it still has a line of wonderful schools, excellent brands, good media markets and talented college football teams.

So why is TV reluctant to buy it?

Well, in part, because it doesn’t have to — as long as it can destroy the conference and pick apart the carcass. Fox didn’t need to make a big bid on the Pac-12’s rights. Not after it captured the Los Angeles TV market and 5.7 million television homes when USC and UCLA defected for the Big Ten. Then, last week Fox grabbed Denver via the Big 12’s acquisition of Colorado.

What’s today’s target?

Phoenix, of course.

Then, maybe the Bay Area, Seattle and Portland. On Wednesday, the Big Ten Conference presidents reportedly opened preliminary talks to explore additional expansion. They may decide to add Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal. It’s early there. They’re just exploring. But it’s a full-on chess game now, being played by a merry band of pirates.

In the last year, more than half of the remaining members of the Pac-12’s CEO Group told me that they believed the conference was positioned to get a solid media deal. They echoed each other and preached solidarity and unity. They were confident they’d get market value for their product and stick together. Now, we’re all left wondering if a subscription-based deal heavy on Apple TV+ will be enough.

One of the remaining “Four Corners” athletic directors confessed a few days ago that the negotiating landscape was difficult. He believed Arizona, ASU and Utah wanted to stick together, see commissioner George Kliavkoff’s presentation, and ideally remain in the Pac-12.

What were the threats?

Peers from other conferences trying to “take the league,” he said.

TV executives trying to “own it all,” he offered.

A “major influence” from one TV group, in particular, he noted.

What TV group exactly?

“Fox,” he said.

The Arizona Board of Regents met in executive session on Tuesday. Will Arizona and Arizona State split up? Stay together? Join forces with Utah and stay in the Pac-12… or leave it for good? Those are heavy questions and it’s difficult for me not to believe Fox is rooting hard for the demise of the Pac-12. After all, if all hell breaks loose it might pick up Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford under its the Big Ten contract at a hefty discount.

Television isn’t just responsible for late kickoffs, longer game times, and the loss of traditions and rivalries. Its greed has effectively squeezed the landscape into thinking there isn’t room for more than maybe 50 or 60 schools as long as the key media markets are captured and controlled.

Again, I get it. Shareholders need results. Television is a business. These are tough times in the media world, but live sports programming is one of the few revenue streams actually pulling its weight. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that sports is one of the places that still “stands tall.” Which should make us all wonder why the Pac-12 doesn’t already have a signed deal.

Did the conference and its consultants [deleted] off Fox by asking for $50 million per school in the early part of the negotiation? Or when it asked Fox’s remote broadcast crews to show up on site to football games? Should the Pac-12 have just taken the network’s first offer and kept quiet because the alternative literally meant an existential reckoning? Are there some antitrust issues that lawmakers should unpack?

The Pac-12 probably could have likely cut an early deal with Fox/ESPN and left the Big 12 holding the bag. But I’d still feel the same way. There’s something about the role of television in all of this that feels icky.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to the Pac-12 in the next few days. It could be Apple is seeking a linear partner to help sweeten the deal. It could be the Pac-12 finds one by itself. Or doesn’t. As retired Fox Sports Networks President Bob Thompson told me on Wednesday morning: “The deals are never over until they’re signed.”

The Pac-12 is a great conference with loads of rich history. I keep thinking about all the great players and coaches who suited up over the years. Also, the fan bases that have been left in agony and limbo for the last 14 months.

They deserved better.

[redpony]

Kliavkoff needs to go. They should poach Aresco.

Surely you jest. Aresco is the clown who lost our best schools, was unable to sell new quality institutions on joining us and then added the garbage schools that we now have.
NO Thanks! If you want to poach somebody poach the commissioner of B12.

The best thing SMU can do is get into a P5 conference. If some of these mentioned teams go to the B1G- Fl. St. , Clemson then just maybe there is a chance go move to the ACC. One can always hope.

[EastStang]

Can we jettison some of the lesser new members ( ie UNT) of the AAC and pick up OSU and WSU?

We could pull a MWC move. Just leave with the best teams/locations. AAC can run with the rest. Or we just win and wait and hope the ACC blows up.

[Peruna Power]

So I think at this point a MWC/AAC + Pac rejects merger to create one “best of the rest” conference and have it have a similar amount of teams as the big boys.

Winner of that conference gets into the playoff and keeps things much simpler.

We can’t be surprised, it’s Peruna’s Law at work like always.

SMU’s inaction during the 90’s/early 2000’s put us here. We tried this time, I don’t blame the University… This time at least.