Jon Joseph

Gold Nuggets: Post-Media Day edition SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM The Pac-12's best and brightest descended upon Sin City on Friday to meet the media to kick off the 2023 campaign. Whose...

Amen, Charles. The ACC recently outsourced a whole bunch of its sports inventory to CW and what did we hear? Crickets.

David, good thoughts. The SEC's new media deal begins in 2024 and runs through 2036. I think a number of expansion decisions and the direction of college athletics in general, will be affected by players at the P5 level, at least, being deemed to be employees of their university. I also believe that streaming will alter the calculus from media market size to eyes on the prize; how many folks are watching. And streaming could provide the money to expand that has been tapped out on the traditional media front. In Big Business we see size go to size. Growth comes from mergers and acquisitions as much or more than it does from internal growth. Meanwhile, I'm going to kick back and watch Puddles kick booty.

Bama Hammer, guess what team he roots for, weighs in on expansion. College Football may reach a Power Two without more expansion BAMAHAMMER.COM During SEC Media Days, Greg Sankey stated SEC Football (and Basketball) have no expansion plans. In a recent piece by Blake...

A 15-member committee instead of a single overseer with enforcement powers? This should work out well, right?

There is 1 BIG Fish on OBD and he is a heck of a Fischer.

Thanks, Happy, all good thoughts. Without the LA schools, Fox/B1G would not have been able to come close to the SEC media deal. Destabilizing a conference that it broadcast for many years likely never crossed the minds of the executives at Fox. Ditto for ESPN execs when it came to the poaching of OK/TX from the B12. In the case of Fox/B1G the B1G lied by commission. In the case of ESPN/SEC, the SEC lied by omission. In the B1G, UCLA, USC, and SEC Philosophy Departments, Nietzsche has to be the go-to guy followed closely by Machiavelli. Spot on Happy. Expansion if it happens will be about inventory and then how small of a revenue share can you hand say, SDSU and SMU, to convince them to come on board. I think that this call will be made by the conference's media partners as much as it will be made by the conference. If GK advises expansion holdouts that the media deal will not fly without expansion then I expect the votes will be there to OK expansion. It's all about the money. Saying that, with the Pac looking at a lesser deal than the B1G/SEC and with Comcast and SFO office retrofit hits coming, I can see why Pac-10 schools might want to stay with ten teams in anticipation of expansion deck chairs being moved again 5 or so seasons from now. The San Diego market is a decent size market and keeps the conference in southern California. The DFW market is large. On the other hand, SMU football was 69th most watched on average in the nation last season with SDSU coming in at 73. There would be a bump in viewers if SMU and/or SDSU were to move up from G5 to P5, but how much of a bump? I do not expect an ipso facto jump in SMU's media rankings simply because SMU joins a conference located on the west coast. A conference with no natural rivals. If the Pac Presidents were bullish on Central time zone inventory they could have taken in B12 orphans a few years back. If expansion candidates are not immediately accretive in today's media marketplace does it make sense to expand? Based on 2022 viewer numbers, the slam dunk Power 3 accretive teams are Clemson, Oregon, FSU, Utah, and UW. And, of course, the big prize is Notre Dame. TCU and OK St also average more than $1M viewers a game on average. Texas Tech and K State come very close to doing so. I expect that when GK presents the details of the new media deals to the Pac Presidents that the deal will already have expansion factored in. And if I were Oregon and UW I would not blindly approve expansion without a complete understanding of the numbers involved. For the most part, I see an article such as this and in general all articles regarding conference expansion as being idle speculation from folks sitting behind a keyboard without the ability to write the checks that would enable expansion. It may well be in the Pac's best interests to play the long game and go after accretive B12 schools when they become available. TCU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas, and K State would all be better conference additions than SDSU and/or SMU and would provide more than a scintilla of Central time zone inventory. I always enjoy reading your well-thought-out comments.

$? Does the B12 have its own network or a printing press? I know Texas is on the way out the door but the B12 is all hat and no cattle. Or, maybe sheep?

A MUST WATCH! Great film. Helped to pump up Rob Sasser, played by Jason Bateman, who was a driving force in NIKE's climb. Dan Lanning made mention of Strasser's book, From Good to Great at Pac-12 media day. Ben Affleck was great playing the part of an enigmatic Phil Knight. Matt Damon was also excellent playing the part of Sonny Vaccaro who I ran across back in the day in Las Vegas. But Viola Davis, playing Michael Jordan's Mom, stole the show. Sasser and Knight agreeing to share advertising revenue with MJ changed the entire calculus of players receiving a slice of the advertising pie.

Thanks, PA. I think this decision will have as much or more input from media partners as it will from the conference itself. I don't know if the broadcast partners will be happy about exchanging a P5 game for a game against a G5 or FCS opponent. HOPEFULLY, SOS will matter come the 2024 playoff expansion, and teams that play 8 conference games will be dinged for doing so. Well, at least I can wish for this to be the case.

A great city? That's what the locals have to say about Mogadishu. Coach Pete. 1 playoff appearance, 0-1. Oregon, 1 playoff appearance, 1-1. Pete got a lot of hangover Boise love that did not all that often translate into success in the Pac. Pete's OKG guys were MIA vs Bama.

WOW! Coast to Coast DL has Oregon on the recruiting radar. Nice to have an A+ grade to date ahead of the Trojans but what about Stanford with an A+! New Cardinal HC Taylor is on the ball; I think Shaw mailed it in the 3 seasons before he retired. Thanks, PA for all of the great information. It would be fun to renew a true rivalry with Stanford. The LA schools leaving town have not seemed to hurt Pac recruiting to date. Chip? The same old Chip when it comes to recruiting. Yesterday, Coach Whittingham said the loss of the LA schools leaving has yet to be determined. So far, so good although Utah to date is again struggling in bringing quality players to Salt Lake City. Deion is a portal magnet but so far when it comes to P5 recruiting not so much.

A product of an inferiority complex.

Thanks, Steven, somewhat churlish regarding the Ducks but this is to be expected. Ducks bailing out for UW when Oregon suffers 3 to 4 defeats? The Ducks have 45 new players being added to the roster in 2023 and most of the newcomers are an improvement over the guys they are replacing. The Ducks will have a Blue Chip Roster in 2023. UW will not. The media's prediction of the Pac-12 order of finish? Where is Charles with the gift of Baghdad Bob? I think it is UW and not Oregon that will suffer at least 3 defeats. At USC, vs Oregon in Seattle and 1 of Utah in Seattle or to Oregon State in Corvallis. For the sake of the Pac-10, I do want UW to win at Michigan State, a game that will fly under the radar being broadcast by Peacock. Win this game and Penix will have gone 3-1 vs Sparty.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/shedeur-sanders-showed-off-his-confidence-and-mindset-similar-to-that-of-deions

CBS Sports. Where have you gone Dennis Dodd, Pac fans turn a lonely eye for you. At least DD had the good sense to di-di on Pac media day. But this did not stop more pap drooling from the mouths and keyboards of CBS scribes. The Pac-12 is losing its 2 big brand names? How about losing 1 in football and 1 in basketball? UCLA has been a non-entity on the football field for over a decade as represented by the fans disguised as empty seats in the Rose Bowl. Hands down the most influential brand in the Pac along with SC is the OREGON BRAND. Based on the number of fans tuning into games this is not subject to debate. In 2022 Oregon finished ahead of SC in the total number of fans tuning into football games and the average number of fans tuning in to Pac football games. Justice delayed is not justice. Not so in regard to any kind of business transaction where delay often benefits the seller. Especially when negotiating in a market that is going through significant change. Let's take a deep breath and look at the Pac's P5 competitors. The ACC - Locked into a terrible deal through 2036. The B12 - Scurried to the marketplace and ended up with a 6-year deal that will likely be obsolete within 5 years. And B12 games will not all be carried on linear TV. A fair number of B12 games will be streamed on ESPN+. The B12's threat to take away the Pac 4 Corners schools is full of sound and fury with no money available to fund such expansion. ESPN/Fox are not shelling out for more B12 inventory and no 4 Corner school is going to agree to take a lesser media revenue cut than BYU. The B1G - It took a year for Fox to do a deal that elbows ESPN out of B1G coverage. In order to find the money to match the SEC's $70M a team per annum, Fox had to bring in CBS, kicked out of SEC coverage by ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and also had to lie, ethics be damned, in the process of stealing the LA schools from the Pac. Guess what, the deal will not yield $70M a year, it will yield $64M a year and it is not certain that even $64M will be realized. The LA schools bring in not less than $20M a year so what is the real value of the B1G, closer to $45M to $50M a season? The SEC - No surprise that the Power 1 conference did not have to negotiate all that hard to score its new media deal. Disney/ESPN came with boatloads of money for the SEC. ESPN is paying five times plus the @$50M a year CBS was paying for the SEC tier one broadcast rights. With all of the SEC presidents on board and aware of how success on the field raises all conference boats, the well-managed SEC, with terrific, business-oriented commissioners since the days of Roy Kramer, is scoring the ROI that it richly serves. The additions of Oklahoma and Texas are icing on an already perfectly baked cake. Could the Pac have done a better PR job in regard to the new media deal? Maybe. But blabbing when you have nothing to say, hello B12 and the B12's media sycophants, is more senseless than keeping your cards close to your vest. Hang in there. He who laughs last ... Pac-12 Media Day 2023: George Kliavkoff stands firm on media rights timeline, downplays realignment concerns - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM The commissioner sought to quell concerns over the league's future as he kicked off the event on Friday

Thanks, PA for the great posts. GK - 'We have nothing to announce in regard to the media deal and have decided not to announce it today so we can focus on football." Right? I find myself once again, in total agreement with Charles. There's vapid and then there are football media days which put the V in vapid.

Great take Woad. The BT is 3-7 in the playoff. Ohio State is 3-4 with 1 title, Michigan is 0-2 and Michigan State is 0-1. The SEC talks the big talk and takes it to the fields of play. The BT, not so much? Spot on in regard to geography. I am hoping that streaming will give the Pac better kickoff time options. Best of luck to the Tar Heels in 2023.

If there is a 12-1 SEC champ and another SEC team finishes 12-1, ditto the B1G, probably not.

Great thoughts. I see the ACC remaining as-is with the possibility that Notre Dame would be forced to join the Atlantic Division as a full-time football matter. If the ND/ACC scheduling agreement was to disappear the Domers football program would most likely have to join the ACC or the B1G to remain viable. I'd add 4 schools to the 10-team Pacific Division - SDSU, UNLV, SMU, and Tulane. An alternative to two divisions would be to go with three, 8-team divisions for football and men's basketball.

Great thoughts. How about an Atlantic and Pacific division for all sports other than football and men's basketball with the champions of the sports playing for a conference title? And with scheduling for other sports augmented as agreed upon. I see football with 8 games intra-division and 2 games cross-division.

I think the survey was conducted in a pub in Las Vegas that is open 24/7. Or, the proverbial 1,000 monkeys each with a keyboard? PUZZLING to say the least.

This will likely draw more fans than the ones trying to find the Pac-12 Network. SEC Media Days. 4 days of wall-to-wall coverage on the SEC Network which is subscribed to by 4x+ as many folks who subscribe to the Pac-12 network. Hats off to Dan Lanning and his staff for requiting so well with one hand tied behind Oregon's back.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/colorado-announces-sellout-crowds-for-nebraska-and-stanford