Jon Joseph

You need a ticket to watch Taylor Swift and an invitation to relocate.

Oregon needs the Big Ten, but the Big Ten needs Oregon just as badly DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM A perfect outcome for Oregon is a seat at the table next to USC and UCLA. The Big Ten may need to jump on that while they...

How do you write expansion checks when you have no money in the till?

Thanks, Charles, very interesting. It turns out that Yormark made a brilliant move jumping ahead of the Pac-12 after Bob Bowlsby made the astute move to add BYU and 3 of the most valued G5 teams. Even more brilliant was Yormark getting Fox/ESPN on the hook to fund further B12 expansion. With ESPN/Fox committed to come with $31.7M a year per school to fund B12 expansion no wonder these 2 are dragging their feet when it comes to doing a deal for what is now Pac-9 inventory. And as Desmond Howard noted the other day, Pac teams can get divorced today without having to pay alimony. My only disagreement with this article is that Larry's failure to destroy the B12 was not in hindsight close to Carol Folt leading the way to squash the Pac-12's obvious business move which was to add 6 or so B12 orphans and create a P4 without a B12 competing for media rights money. GK did not have the gravitas that a Jim Delany and perhaps even a Bob Bowlsby would have had to overcome the presidents of the 'Elite Club' and put the B12 out of existence. Today, with Fox owning the LA market and ESPN floundering amid cord-cutting and having to come up with its share of $31.7M a year for CU through 2030/31 and on the hook for the add-on of other 3 Four Corners schools, where is the money going to come from for Pac-9 inventory. Oregon finds itself in the middle of the most disruptive media market in the last two decades and without leaders who have the ability to overcome today's terrible media logistics. I find the idea of the Pac-9 gaining more media power the longer it waits as simply more financial nonsense. It galls me to have to say this but Yormark appears to be having the last laugh. Oregon today needs to do what's best for Oregon, period. It stinks that decades-long relationships might have to be flushed away but that's the cold business reality of where SC/UCLA, Fox, the B1G, and the B12, along with incredibly short-sighted decade+-long business stupidity has placed Oregon today. An Oregon that did all it could to raise its own profile and the profile of an entire conference while SC and CU among others, sat on their wallets. The sad question is, what alternatives is Oregon left with? Unfortunately, the alternative may be at least through 2030/31, to join the B12 that should no longer exist. The Oregon brand will lead to a solution but there are likely to be more bumps in the road.

Log, I doubt it. Money matters more than coaching a small market team up. Oregon State has had modest success on the football field but the Corvallis market does not move the financial needle. When the expansion dust finally settles I see Oregon State and Washington State in the Mountain West. The B12 would get no national love whatsoever from bringing on Oregon State.

The idea of CFB needing one true champion when it didn't, the BCS that followed, and greed have 'ruined' college football. Money 2 decades+ ago trumped any semblance of ethics attached to college sports. Oregon happens to be part and parcel of the poorest managed, if managed even applies, conference in the nation. The Pac-9 today is reaping a subsistence crop that clueless 'business people' sowed. Yet, for my money, time, and interest there is still no sport I'd rather watch and follow than college football. But the powers-that-be and do-not- be, are making it harder and harder to care about what happens on the field. GO DUCKS! And Fox, ESPN, et al can go to Hades.

Interesting. But a friend in the B1G Athletic department? No comprende. A friend in 'the' Ohio State athletic department I could understand. The B1G to my knowledge does not have a one size fits all athletic department. But the way the world of CFB is today all of these re-posts have merit. I pooh-pooed what I believed to be unfounded speculation before and I have learned a smoke/fire lesson. As others have noted above, Fox, CBS + NBC/Peacock will make any B1G further expansion decisions. But looking at the B1G and knowing, in particular, USC's history, will the B1G prefer Cal and Stanford over the Northwest schools? I'm sure SC would rather compete (not compete) versus Cal and Stanford instead of Oregon and UW. Other than perhaps for the COVID off-season, this is the worst off-season I can remember. PLEASE kick the darn ball off!

Not just football from an academician's POV. (Do academics mean anything anymore in big-time CFB?) 7 of the Pac-9 schools are AAU member schools. Come 2024, 15 of the 16 schools in the B1G will be AAU member schools. The only outlier is Nebraska which was an AAU member when it joined the B1G and likely would not have been extended an invitation without being an AAU member. The B1G can't defeat, in general, the SEC on the field, court, diamond, track, golf course, etc., so academics matter as a way to claim superiority over the SEC. The SEC will have 5 AAU members out of 16 schools come 2024. Of course, this is the kind of flawed thinking that allows one to make flawed business decisions such as deciding not to put the B12 to sleep. From a personal perspective, I can attest that 2 fellow alums of mine were C students; one formed Subway, and the other formed Netflix. And let's not forget that 2 Harvard dropouts almost took down IBM.

TCU draws 2.2M. OK St 1.7M, Baylor draws 1.3M and K St draws 1.23M. BYU is slightly under 1M at 977K. But from a Pac-9 president's POV, I think the synchronicity with the ACC would be more attractive than with the B12. BTW, I was out and about today and heard Rick Neuheisel, who once was the HC at CU, suggest that Oregon and UW should consider going collectively independent (oxymoron?) for the short term. I think scheduling would be a nightmare but it would be interesting to see what Oregon and UW together bring to the bottom line. How much value do the other Pac-7 schools add to the bottom line? IMO this would not work but media folks are coming forth to suggest new P-9 expansion formats whether sensible or not. Shocking, I know.

Frankly, I'm not certain. But the Pac viewer numbers drop way off after Oregon, Utah, and UW, and decent numbers for Cal and Stanford. I think that Clemson and FSU, in particular, would give the combined conference a decent media push, and UNC and NC St #s along with Miami, are not terrible. And I would think that 'merging' with the ACC would likely result in a good CBB bump.

But any alternative to the existing situation requires vision and leadership from the conference commissioner and the school presidents. Something that from what we have seen since GK came on board does not exist. Good call on LA. Without the LA market, the B1G media deal would be well behind the SEC deal. One of the P3 will finish in 3rd place behind the SEC and B1G and one if it holds together in 5th place. Today, the Pac-9, pending the media deal's #s is in 5th place. Going to a Power 4 with a 'merger' with the ACC would move the combined ACC and Pac into a solid 3rd place. Both Clemson with an average of 3M viewers and FSU with 2.03M viewers move the financial needle along with Oregon, 2.21M, Utah, 1.16M, and UW, 1.15M. Cal comes in at a decent 857K viewers and Stanford draws 846K viewers. Both draw better than the Arizona schools but AZ would be vital for CB and I think Dilly will get the job done at ASU.

How many teams do you envision as members? I think B12 schools are likely off the table until the new media deal expires in 2030/31. If the Pac-9 and the ACC merged in theory the ACC could re-work its existing deal with ESPN. And the ACC network, Coast-to-Coast network could take over the Pac-12 network facilities and broadcast apparatus. The money maker would be to get Notre Dame to buy into conference affiliation for football with the understanding that Notre Dame would get a bigger piece of the pie as would Clemson, FSU, Oregon, and UW.

I like the take but I think Pac presidents are day and night different from their counterparts in the SEC. Had the SEC presidents made the decision to add the B12 orphans expansion into the Central time zone would have been a slam dunk and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey if the commissioner of the Pac would have insisted on adding the B12 schools and would not have bent over for the duplicitous Carol Folt, or later in the day, be sucker punched by Kevin Warren. Long ago SEC presidents figured out that a Rising Tide lifts all boats. Figured out that they are managing a big business when it comes to sports and not a lemonade stand.

ACC commish Jim Phillips says league ‘would absolutely be open’ to expansion SATURDAYROAD.COM ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says the league has spent 'considerable time' discussing the possibility of expansion.

Some prospective. Senseless negotiating by ESPN and Fox to be on the hook to fund B12 expansion but sound negotiating by Yormark. Give the devil his due. . Adding Colorado doesn't fix the Big 12's problem WWW.YARDBARKER.COM The Big 12 keeps getting bigger but not necessarily better. Colorado will join the conference in 2024, following the leaps...

I'm saving a ticket for you while hoping that the train soon departs the station.

The Plan? We have met the enemy and they are us! It's all good. Nothing to see here, move right along.

College Football: The Pac-9 suddenly in survival mode BAMAHAMMER.COM The college football conference still officially known as the Pac-12 now has just nine teams for the 2024 season. In short order this... Fool me once? Fool me twice should equal a Pink Slip and a boot out the door. Did anything new come out of yesterday's emergency meeting? NO!

Better leadership or simply leadership? Leaders do not get sucker punched more than once. If this guy can't show us the money then can GK and bring in Jim Delaney or Bob Bowlsby as a temporary replacement? 2 guys who actually have experience running a conference and experience with media deal negotiations and conference expansion. The guy we hired from Harvard had no college administrative experience and was a complete and costly failure so let's hire an unqualified guy from Boston University. Brilliant!

Great take. Compared to the B12 the geography is problematic but the ACC is a far better fit than the B12.

If I omitted Clemson I certainly did not mean to do so. Clemson and FSU are by quite a bit, the 2 most valuable schools in the ACC. Thanks for the heads up.

But in some respects, I agree that in this crazy world of conference realignment expansion chairs, a 'merger' of some kind with the ACC might well be the way to go and to stiff-arm the B12 in the process. At least from an Oregon POV, IMO, this could well be a better long-term alternative than adding G% teams.

AMEN, WW! But you monetize anything and the folks coming with the $ will end up in control.

I confess to being duped into believing that the Pac-10 would hold together and that another guy with no college sports experience would be better than the last guy without college sports experience to be named the man in charge of the Pac-12/10, oops, 9. Shame on me. IMO opinion, the below, and not simply adding G5 teams to the Pac-9 pallet, is how Oregon can be a member of the P3 of the P4 conferences. And also how the Pac-9 and the ACC Conference can survive and perhaps, thrive. Coast-to-Coast Conference West - Arizona, ASU, Cal, Georgia Tech, OREGON, Oregon State, Pitt, Stanford, Utah, Washington, Washington State. (Georgia Tech lies west of Detroit and Pitt is the other most western-located ACC school. Both are west of several B1G schools.) East - Boston College, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest. The ACC media deal at $20M a year through 2036 frankly stinks. But including distributions from the ACC Network, ACC teams grossed more than Pac-12 teams in 2022. ESPN, owner, and operator of the ACC network in 2018 offered to purchase and operate the Pac-12 network. An offer which in their wisdom, the conference turned down. ESPN could take over the Pac network facilities and merge the network into the ACC network. Like the ACC, the Pac-9 schools could assign their respective tier 2 and lower media rights to CW. It's more than time for Oregon and UW, to lead the way in this direction. To stop having their respective brand dragged down by vapid so-called leadership. Elevate ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and leave George Kliavkoff behind, fine with me. Would geography be ideal? No. But it is now even more apparent that Oregon needs to act in its best interest and lead the way, not allow itself to be dragged down by moronic leadership and by 'partners' unwilling or unable to promote their brand in the manner of Oregon. Adding G5 teams in an effort to win the conference and advance to an expanded football playoff is, IMO, short-sighted and not designed to lead to a long-term financial win.

Good take. But as of now, it's more than time for Oregon to think of itself and not the Pac-9 and the Larry-like continuing mismanagement. Adding a bunch of G5 schools will do nothing to improve the conference's national perception or to move it out of the P5 5 hole. First Kevin Warren and now the B12 Commish have played GK like a brass drum. Why would Oregon want to remain in a conference with GK as the so-called 'leader?' What can Oregon gain from affiliating with a bunch of G5 teams? There is a time if at all possible to abandon the ship and not continuing to believe that bailing water will keep the ship afloat. The iceberg has been struck.