Jon Joseph

No matter how big the media rabbit Commissioner Kliavkoff can pull out of the hat, UCLA and USC will be bringing down far more media money in the B1G than any Pac-10 team will be bringing home. But will the LA schools be playing better competition in the B1G than they faced for decades in the Pac-8/10/12? FOOTBALL - This is the sport that stirs the drink and brings in around 80% of an athletic department's annual revenues. In games played between the Pac and the B1G conferences the Pac has an overall winning record of 270-264-12. The Rose Bowl record also favors the Pac Conference with a record of 52-45-3. The B1G has sent three-member teams to the college football playoff, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State with Ohio State making the playoff field 5 times with one championship (sigh) and an overall record of 3-4. The B1G's playoff record is 3-7. The Pac-12 has sent two teams to the playoff, Oregon and Washington with an overall record of 1-2. UCLA has not come close to making the playoff field. USC came close last season before being taken to the woodshed by Utah in the Pac-12 conference championship game. Coming into the 2023 season, the Pac-12 will have five, Oregon, USC, Washington, Utah, and Oregon State ranked in the AP Poll preseason top 25 with UCLA certain to be among the other teams receiving votes. The B1G will have three teams, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State ranked and could have as many as five ranked if Iowa and Wisconsin slip into the top 25. When it comes to tradition, stadium size, fan interest, and famous football players, the B1G trumps the Pac-12 in every respect. The B1G schools have legions of alumni and alumnae and for the most part, the member schools play in the more heavily populated Eastern time zone. The B1G Network is a roaring success while the Pac-12 Network has withered on the vine. And over the years the B1G has sent far more players to the NFL. In terms of national interest, the B1G is hands down more recognized than the Pac-12. But will USC in particular find it easier to make the expanded playoff in the B1G than it would have had in the Pac-12? Likely not. And USC will no longer be the preeminent team in its conference. As for UCLA, traveling 26,000 miles in 2024 to play football speaks for itself. There will be more eyeballs on the LA schools in the B1G but this will not ipso facto translate to more on-field success. One record the Pac-12 has over the B1G. In 1962 Oregon State's Terry Baker won the Heisman Trophy and also played in the basketball tournament Final Four. No athlete other than Baker has accomplished this 'daily double.' MEN'S BASKETBALL - Year after year the B1G sends far more teams to the NCAA basketball tournament but with no more success than the Pac-12. The last time a B1G team won a basketball title came in 2000 when Michigan State defeated Florida for the title. This is better than the Pac-12 that last won a basketball title in 1997 when Arizona defeated Kentucky in overtime. In terms of fan interest, attendance, and eyes on the prize, the B1G is superior to the Pac-12 but will the LA schools have more on-court success in the B1G? And with the B1G conference champ game played in Chicago, Bruins, and Trojans fans will have to travel far further than the drive from southern California to Las Vegas. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL - Down on The Farm the women are well aware that no B1G women's team has won a basketball title since 1999. The B1G is deep when it comes to women's basketball teams but this does not translate into championships. SOFTBALL - In the final NCAA softball poll before the 2022/23 tournament the Pac-12 had four teams ranked before the B1G's best, Northwestern. This has been the case for the most part season after season. TRACK + FIELD - The Pac-8/10/12 has been historically better than the B1G and has produced far more track and field Olympic athletes. The rich history of the Pac Conference goes back at least to Jesse Owens giving Adolph Hitler an in-your-face in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. So much for the Master Race whose athletes didn't come close to winning a race versus Jesse. Oregon - has an incredibly rich track and field tradition including - Steve Prefontaine, Raevny Rogers, Kenny Moore, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Rudy Chapa, Jerry Schumacher, Ashton Eaton, Kelly Blair LaBounty, Coach Bill Hayward, and some guy who competed for Bill by the name of Phil Knight. The Pac-12 in track and field laps the B1G. GYMNASTICS - Another sport with many more Olympic athletes coming from the Pac-12. In 2023, no BIG team made the NCAA semifinals. Cal, USC, and Utah did so and this is typical of season after season. MEN and WOMEN'S GOLF - It's been a long time since the Golden Bear roamed the fairways in Columbus. This sport comes up fairways and greens for the Pac-12 including a Natty authored by Casey Martin and the Ducks Men's golf team. Far more men and women professional golfers are Pac-12 alums than B1G alums. ICE HOCKEY - Next Case. Yes, the money is nice and it will spend, at least on facilities, administrative salaries, and coaches' salaries but how much of this money will filter down to athletes who are being asked to travel like professional athletes? Abd overall, the competition will not be better in the B1G than in the Pac-12 and in many cases, it will be far less competitive.

Hats off to DL and his staff who are bringing lots of talent to Oregon. Below is a ranking of Pac-12 recruiting over the recent years. Utah stands out as doing the most with the least while SC's recruiting success has not translated to the field of play. Interesting to see how many of the top-drawer recruits did not pan out at a given school and how many did not finish their college career at the original school to which they committed. Which Pac-12 school has dominated recruiting the most since 2010? DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM When it comes to recruiting in the Pac-12, USC has dominated the past 15 years. The race for second place is incredibly tight, though.

You can put lipstick on Traveler but ... SC in recent memory has one Pac-12 title. SC will be the 4th horse in the B1G football horse race. No Williams in 2024? I see SC going 9-3 at best and starting with a loss vs LSU in Las Vegas. Both UCLA and USC wanted Nebraska as a permanent scheduling partner for B1G football. This did not happen. And if the football team and the men's basketball team travel on charter flights to away games; well, how will the women athletes react to this? One thing to fly charter to Piscataway and another to schlep commercial. How often do commercial flights arrive on time today if indeed they even take off? If all sports do fly charter that will be a big chunk out of the B1G $65M. To date, even with all of the publicity SC is one spot ahead of Oregon in 2024 recruiting rankings and UCLA, unlike Stanford (!) is nowhere to be seen. Where is the B1G recruiting bump? SC recruiting will finish behind Ohio State recruiting and most likely behind Michigan and Penn State. Yes, there will be spots for 6 conference champs and 6 AL playoff spots in 2024 but with having to play LSU and Notre Dame and playing at Ohio State and with, IMO, the B1G more likely to get two playoff spots and not three, I don't see Troy in the playoff. Especially with Penn State not having to play Ohio State and Michigan every season. And come 2024 Caleb Williams will be playing pro ball. In 2023 I see SC hard-pressed to win in South Bend and I think SC will split the home games versus Utah (the week after SC plays Notre Dame) and UW and take an L in Autzen. With both Oregon and UW on the schedule, it will not be an easy road back to the champ game for SC. And you know that in its last Pac go-around SC will be getting every team's best shot. And how much will the SC D under the same group of coaches improve? The Heisman winner is back but a lot of questions remain.

Great article Mr. FishDuck! I for one am ready to Freak Out and Shout! Love how DL is mining the portal for SEC guys and also going into the deep south to recruit quality HS athletes.

LOL! The one thing I would love to know, is when did Carol Folt begin playing footsie with Fox, Kevin Warren, and the B1G? If discussions were ongoing and undisclosed at the time she did everything she could to thwart the Pac-12's move into the Central time zone, this behavior would violate any number of California (one of the states where I am admitted to practice) statutes regarding fair dealing and constitute a breach of fiduciary duties owed to her Pac-12 partners. Of course, if we mere fans were to learn of such behavior it wouldn't matter as we would have no standing to sue, and the leaders of the Pac are congenitally averse to suing one of their own. FORE!

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/the-pac-12s-expansion-dilemma-with-san-diego-state Nothing new here but a good summary of current events (non-events) in the Pac-10.

First and 10: Forget defending the national title, Kirby Smart needs to defend Georgia’s honor first WWW.SATURDAYDOWNSOUTH.COM It's time for Kirby Smart to own Georgia's offseason and announce how he's going to fix his program's suddenly rancid off-field culture.

Saturday Out West, Jon Gold's, 76 reasons to love the Pac-12. Dennis Dodd read it and weep. Ducks Related - 74) Kilkenny Floor (?) 70) Autzen Stadium 52) Oregon graduate John McKay (and don't forget Oregon grad, John Robinson.) 48) PUDDLES! 31) PRE! 25) The Civil War Game - 2023 will be game #127. 17) MARCUS! 15) A loaded QB conference in 2023 11) Coaches Youth Movement including our man Dan. Gold: 76 reasons I love the Pac-12 SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM With Independence Day right around the corner, Saturday Out West columnist Jon Gold counts down the 76 things he loves the...

Oregon football recruiting: Four-star OT JacQawn McRoy commits as Ducks' 2024 class enters top 10 - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Coach Dan Lanning secured a commitment from one of the top prospects out of Alabama

Rufus, it's Sunday and both courses at my club are being used for a Junior Golf Tournament hosted by the South Carolina PGA. With these so-and-so whipper-snappers taking up all of the tee times I can't get out to play more bad golf so here is my conspiracy theory as to why the Pac Conference is where it finds itself today. Over a decade ago Robert Murdoch, the principal owner of Fox, decided that the broadcast of college football (CFB) games would help Fox's bottom line. Murdoch was never invited to attend ESPN's Super Bowl pre-game parties and was not invited to view the games from the ESPN executive suite. To be a player in the broadcast of CFB, Murdoch knew that he would have to elbow ESPN out of coverage of the B1G conference, where he maneuvered Fox into today being a 61% owner of the B1G Network. He also knew from NFL broadcast experience that he needed to have a solid hold on CFB broadcasts from where his USA headquarters are located in Los Angeles. Through a trust in the Caymans, owned by a holding company located on the Isle of Wight and in turn owned by a shadow company in the Balkans, Murdoch became the silent owner of the consulting firm the Pac-10 engaged to help it find a new commissioner to replace Tom Hansen. He knew he was dealing with a stable of suckers in charge of the Pac-10. He identified a Harvard man, Larry Scott as his dupe who would destroy the Pacific Conference knowing that Larry was a conniving spendthrift and a greedy person who Murdoch was easily able to buy off. The consulting firm did its job and a person with no college sports experience whose only sports experience was managing a women's professional tennis league in Florida, was stupefyingly hired to be Hansen's successor. Murdoch then directed Larry to move the Pac Conference headquarters from Mountain View, California to the uber-expensive downtown San Francisco and had Larry make a play for the big-time B12 teams, knowing that Texas would throw a late-in-the-game monkey wrench into the proposed expansion with the wrench paid for by his nemesis, ESPN, which established the loser Longhorn Network. Further, he instructed Larry to add Colorado and Utah to the Pac-10 and at the same time to do away with USC receiving a greater share of conference media revenue. This did not make the folks at Heritage Hall happy. But this was not enough. Even though Larry did not believe that the Pac presidents could be this stupid Murdoch told Larry to form a network without media partners and to also locate the network headquarters and broadcast facilities in expensive San Francisco digs. And to demand from the suckers a salary of over $4M a year paid to Larry as not only the conference commissioner but also as the CEO of the conference network. To Larry's surprise, the people he reported to actually went for this while buying into absurd media income projections authored by the same consulting firm controlled by Murdoch, which recommended Larry. The operational costs of the Pac-12 Conference were now close to twenty times that of the SEC and the B1G. Time went by and the Pac-12 conference, having chortled over the media deal Larry engineered with ESPN and Fox, which was soon eclipsed in media revenue by the B1G and the SEC began to fall financially far behind. Not even the lowest of income projections of the Pac-12 Network was met. The network with a pathetic number of subscribers broadcast numerous conference football games at an hour when no one east of the Rocky Mountains was awake. The conference but for the efforts of Nike and Oregon fell off of football's national radar. The stage was set but Murdoch needed one more player on his stage to pull off the theft of the LA schools. Ergo, behind the scenes he convinced USC, floundering on the football field and in the midst of an admission and other crises, to hire Carol Folt away from the University of North Carolina to become president of USC. At the same time, behind the scenes, Murdoch was working with CBS, kicked out of the coverage of SEC football by ESPN and NBC looking for more college inventory and a place where it could broadcast games using its streaming affiliate Peacock. to elbow ESPN out of the B1G. Sometime before giving ESPN a B1G toss, Murdoch used Folt to lead the charge against the Pac-12 making the absolute correct business decision to move into the Central time zone by picking up the pieces of the B12 when Oklahoma and Texas announced they were leaving, as so engineered by ESPN, to join the SEC. At the same time Folt was protesting that the leftover B12 teams were not worthy of joining the Pac-12 Exclusive Club, she was negotiating with Fox and the B1G's lying commissioner, Kevin Warren, to move USC into the B1G and to take UCLA along with it. A stronger leader might have been able to convince the conference of the long-term benefits of adding the orphaned B12 teams and eliminating a Power 5 conference from competition for media dollars but Murdoch did not rest on his Larry laurels. He again through his consultants artfully convinced the leaders of the Pac-12, the summa cum laude suckers, to hire a guy with no college sports experience and without the gravitas to thwart the nefarious Murdoch tool, Carol Folt. At the same time, an obscure entity donated large sums of money to the campaign of California Governor Newsome, and his protestations regarding UCLA moving to the B1G largely disappeared except for a 'Calimony' tax that UCLA may or may not be forced to pay. So, the Pac-12 conference did not expand and shortly thereafter USC and UCLA informed the new Pac-12 commissioner that they were off to the B1G greener pastures, leaving the Pac-12 and ESPN behind in favor of a conference with its bottom line managed by Fox. If this was not enough of an in-your-face to the Pac Conference, Larry covered up overpayments to a media partner leaving every Pac team with a $60M dollar financial hit. And of course, the Left Coast suckers are doing nothing to go after Larry. 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty. and despair. Nothing beside remains, Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare and level sands stretch far away.' Percy Bysshe Shelly with a tip-of-the-hat to Robert Murdoch, Larry Scott, Obscure Consultants, Carol Folt, and Kevin Warren. [OK. In the 'real world,' however defined, I do believe that Puddles, unlike my golf swing, will be just fine.] 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Great take. It's all about the Jimmies and the Joes but without proper coaching they oft times turn out to be Larry, Curley, and Moe's.

L-H, great post. I look back on Barry Switzer's teams at Oklahoma, Some bad actors in Norman. And the OK players' conduct does not stand alone. But this type of behavior does not ipso facto have to follow success. For the most part, you do not see this stuff with Nick Saban's teams. And yes, Ohio State athletes scored tattoos but overall the behavior in Columbus has not been anywhere close to what we have witnessed at Georgia. So right that if you are at the top the spotlight will be shined on you and your program. The AJC is not going to run a series of articles on the Georgia State program no matter how bad the team's conduct might be. And young men receiving endless praise is a recipe for trouble. So far, I think that Coach Smart has been too willing to sluff off behavior that has resulted not just in troublesome conduct but in tragic deaths. There are bad actors on every roster but these people do not have to define your roster; especially, if teammates are also attuned to clamping down on bad behavior. And you are also spot on in noting that nothing Smart says will eradicate bad behavior, deeds and not talk are what matter. But bringing him to his knees? In the SEC? I don't see this happening. Typically when a player in the SEC goes off the rails he is benched for the East-West-North-South State game. I do see the circulation of AJC on the decline in Athens, Georgia. Man, it's a long off-season. Play Ball!

Pro Football Focus (PFF) does one of the most if not the most in-depth looks at college football talent in the nation. Likely 2nd only to NFL scouts and most of the scouts admit to using PFF as a tool in talent evaluation. PFF evaluates every play by every player in G5 and P5 football and PFF rankings often vary from season's end college football awards. For example, the Joe Moore Award is presented to the best OL in CFB. The Michigan OL won the Joe in 2021 and 2022. In both seasons PFF had Oregon's OL rated ahead of Michigan's OL. If I am reading the rankings correctly, no numerals next to the top 10 RB rooms, Oregon comes in #7 in the nation heading into the 2023 season. In 2022, Bucky Irving was one of two RBs, the other being UCLA's Zack Charbonnet, to carry the ball one hundred and fifty times or more and average 6.5 yards or more. Testament to Bucky, the OL play, OC Dillingham's scheme, and play calling. I don't mean to whine, maybe I do, but if these two young men had played in the SEC would that stat be under the radar? Oregon Football: PFF includes Oregon in list of the 10 best RB rooms DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM With Bucky Irving and Noah Whittington back for more, the Ducks have one of the best RB rooms in the nation this year. One thing of interest to me looking at these rankings is that no Alabama RB has started a game or has significant playing time. Add this to Saban bringing a QB late in the day from Notre Dame and Bama's recruiting while always ranked in the top 3 nationally and often 1, has whiffed on identifying talent on the O side of the ball. The OL play for Bama in the last two seasons has also been subpar and Bama's recruiting corps is not what it once was. I will not be surprised if LSU goes back-to-back winning the SEC W in the last season of divisions in the SEC. Will Stein has been handed a lot of tools and hopefully, he will have the O machine working in the fashion it worked under Dilly.

Great call. And Clemson followed FSU in having a superior roster to other ACC members. Remember that undefeated FSU team out of the ACC that Oregon played in the Rose Bowl? According to Jameis, the game was close. Right?

My friend, you and I disagree regarding Pollock and McAfee who dresses like a deranged junior high kid and makes a fool of himself trying to be witty. I am done with Game Day and the tired schtick of Lee Corso doing his hat dance. 2 and a half hours of tripe and maybe a half hour of substance. Access to streaming services will get easier. And the number of households as a marker for potential viewership is no different than basing broadcast decisions on the size of a media market and not on the number of eyeballs tuning into a given game. Both Apple and Amazon will provide far more access to games than the 13M subscribers to Pac-12 Network and I'm not certain on what you are basing your analysis of Paramount/Prime subscribers on. I happen to have both the Apple/Amazon apps and I'm as zealous a viewer of football as anyone.

In part, but playing 11 P5 opponents and tripping to Oregon, UCLA, and Utah and playing in Pullman in November, and drawing USC and Oregon State and not Cal is a witch. Compare this schedule to what the conference handed the LA schools, especially UCLA in 2023 and CU has a far greater degree of difficulty. And UW coming off of the Apple Cup and Oregon and Oregon State coming off the Civil War game if one of the three teams qualifies for the conference champ game will have to play USC in the champ game, if it qualifies, coming off of an idle week. USC plays week 0 so it was going to get a 2nd bye. But the bye could not have come in the penultimate week of the regular season with SC playing UCLA the ultimate week. And UCLA misses both Oregon and UW? Both UCLA and USC get the benefit of the Cali scheduling agreement with both playing Cal and Stanford before kissing off the Pac. Why? Why did Mullens and Jen Cohen at UW and the other Pac-10 ADs sign off on this parting gift for the LA schools? What did Merton Hanks and the Pac-10 gain from this gift to UCLA and USC? Nothing.

My bulls horns regarding the new media deal have been at least slightly polled by this news. With the LA schools leaving how could you allow the San Diego market to potentially slip away? SDSU is earning $4M a year in media revenue as a member of the MW. A leader(s) could have agreed without knowing the new media deals details to take a $500,000.00 per Pac-10 school media haircut, if necessary, to bring on SDSU. For $5M per annum, SDSU would have been delighted to move up from the G5 to the P5. SDSU could have left the MW with a $17M exit fee that could have been negotiated down or paid over several years. Instead, the conference left the Aztecs in limbo and put the Pac-10 further in harm's way. What is the strategy here? To be a PR ostrich and bury your head in the sand. I understand confidentiality agreements but this should not impact Pac-10 HQ assuring its members with at least a ballpark estimate of when the deal will be finalized. Meanwhile, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF officially joined the B12 today. I continue to hope for the best but this news is disconcerting, to say the least.

Pollack is out and McAfee is in? Once again style beats substance. Keyshawn Johnson was also told to hit the road. I am glad I am not the one on point trying to do a media deal in today's world. David Pollack reacts to ESPN layoff, reflects on time spent on College GameDay WWW.SATURDAYDOWNSOUTH.COM David Pollack was let go in ESPN's latest wave of layoffs.

OH NO! Justin Herbert's buddy Todd Mc Shade is one of the on-air folks laid off by ESPN in the most recent round of cuts by the World Wide Leader. Mel Kiper is now on his own in projecting totally erroneous draft picks. ESPN lays off Todd McShay, other big NFL names LARRYBROWNSPORTS.COM ESPN has parted ways with more than a dozen on-air personalities as part of its latest round of layoffs, and one of the moves will...

Prime Time, welcome to the Pac-12. Pac-12 strength of schedule rankings 2023: Deion Sanders faces tough debut slate, USC gets favorable draw - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Here's how each schedule ranks in difficulty for the final season of the Pac-12's current configuration

The contract was one that ESPN and Fox were eager to agree to because it is a placeholder and not more lucrative than the old agreement. This agreement will be laughed at before it concludes. Like the media deal Larry Scott signed that everyone thought was so great. The Pac deal will exceed the B12 deal and will come to the market again before the B12 deal. The B12 is now an extension of the AAC including Houston. A fine school but one that is third at best in the Houston market.

Does the word 'THINK' belong in the same sentence with Pac-12 presidents?

Dave, accessing streaming apps will become easier for your Dad and old guys like me. We are at the dawn of a new media paradigm and access to the product will improve. Like ABC, CBS, and NBC, the leaders of streaming companies understand that they will make more money working together. Why is anyone surprised that Thursday night NFL telecasts do not draw the same as games broadcast on Sunday? Not only is Amazon saddled with a weeknight broadcast time but the best games are not allocated by the NFL to Thursday night. Comparing Sunday telecasts to Thursday night streaming is apples and oranges.

It will be a better deal than the relatively stagnant deal the B12 made. Pac-10 teams are not heading off to the B12 even if I am incorrect, it happens, and the Pac deal is a few million behind the B12 deal. The Pac-12 will like the B12 have a representative in the Dallas market. And the restructured Pac-12 will be in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City. The B12 will have Salt Lake City, Houston, and Orlando but also have many small markets. And the travel in the B12 for a school like BYU will be awful. And how much travel will West Virginia save with the addition of UCF? Not much. What are B12's flagship football programs? TCU had an excellent 2022 season before being throttled by UGA. K State won the conference championship in 2022. Neither of these 2 schools has the cache of an Oregon program or the historic success of the UW program. Not that SMU will draw more eyeballs but TCU is far from the lead college sports sled dog in the DFW area. The B12 is an expanded AAC conference.