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clapclapclap

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Posts posted by clapclapclap

  1. 4 hours ago, mdmost said:

    Gundy is such a little baby. I guess he can have Bedlam against Tulsa every season since they're on the schedule through 2030. 

     

    So when we quit playing aggy because they left that was good, but if OK St quits playing OU because they left they're being a baby?

    • Haha 1
  2. Oregon sportswriter:

    https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-espn-plays-kingmaker-as-pac

    I reached out to the former president of Fox Sports Network, Bob Thompson, this week and asked him to examine the role ESPN will play in the future of the Pac-12. He came back with an analysis I think you need to hear.

    Spoiler

    ESPN is in an exclusive, 30-day negotiating window with the conference right now. I believe that explains why we’ve had a lull when it comes to realignment news. The conference members are waiting to see what kind of offer the Pac-12 will get.

    Said Thompson, “ESPN needs the Pac-12 more than anybody and will likely pay more than anyone else. They like West Coast windows for football. They like basketball inventory and they might actually be able to make something out of the Pac-12 Networks. They also need content for ESPN+.”

    A few things to think about, per Thompson:

    • The Pac-12 will survive if ESPN reaches an agreement with the conference during this negotiating window that ensures the 10 remaining universities have a reasonable annual payout going forward.

    • If ESPN’s initial offer is a lowball to the Pac-12, Thompson expects it could cause a few members to bolt or at least prompt them to seriously explore other options.

    • Thompson negotiated dozens of these kinds of deals with a variety of conferences in his career. He said that ESPN may decide to make a shrewd offer to the Pac-12, knowing that it if it’s rejected, the conference is likely to fall apart and have a handful of members end up with the Big 12.

    “ESPN,” he said, “can then go after those rights buoyed by the fact that they have $$$ in their pocket that they didn't pay the Pac 12.”

    • The whole Pac-12 + ACC alliance makes Thompson leery. He believes the concept was hatched as a way to funnel some extra dollars to ACC members who have grown restless with the terms of the conference’s current media rights deal.

    Said Thompson: “It seems to me the play is that somehow the ACC Network serves both conferences and replaces Pac-12 Networks ultimately increasing the payout from ESPN to the ACC.”

    • The whole thing feels similar to the summer of 2011, Thompson remembers, when the Pac-12 tried to raid six schools from the Big 12. The hang-up then was Longhorn Network — the University of Texas media creation — which the Pac-12 didn’t want.

    Said Thompson: “Fox and ESPN stepped up and didn't give the Big 12 a haircut on their rights fees as a result of Colorado and Nebraska leaving. This basically kept the Big 12 from cratering that summer.”

    • It’s interesting that the Pac-12 tried once before to kill the Big 12, isn’t it? A decade later (2021), Texas and Oklahoma bolted to the SEC. At the time, per sources, the Big 12 floated a potential merger with the Pac-12. It was rejected. Now, a year later, the script is flipped. After the defection of USC and UCLA, the Big 12 might love nothing more than to cannibalize 4-6 more schools from the Pac-12 and squash it.

    Fox has the Big Ten Conference and appears content with that partnership. Insiders don’t view them as a likely bidder for the Pac-12 right now. Not unless there’s some kind of merger with the Big 12 or other shape-shifting change. So that leaves ESPN holding the biggest vote when it comes to the fate of the Pac-12.

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  3. 3 minutes ago, txduck87 said:


    Just a 50 year Stros fan watching the team with 2nd best record in baseball. Yourself ?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    I'm a lifelong Yankees, Dodgers, and aggy fan from Harlingen. 

    • Haha 1
  4. Paywalled, but Wilner interviewed a former FOX VP of programming.  He thinks the Pac's best bet is to merge with or work a deal with the B12 to get a joint cable channel.  Also says the B12 expanding with just AZ, ASU, Utah, and Colo doesn't add much value, including WA & OR bumps it, but the Bay Area could also value. 

    “If you’re the Big 12 and you raid the Pac-12 for those six schools,” he said, “maybe you get a 20 percent (revenue) bump. But maybe that gets to 30 percent if you bring the (Bay Area).”

    Changes in media consumption have added immense value to the top brands in college football — the schools that drive ratings and command primetime slots on over-the-air networks. But market size still factors into valuation because of retransmission fees (for broadcast) and subscribers (for cable).

    “The Bay Area adds value,” Crakes said. “Why would you say no to that?”

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/11/pac-12-survival-guide-the-strategic-merits-of-a-merger-with-the-big-12/

    Bay Area market is bigger than the entire state of Washington, and adding Sacramento's is similar to WA+OR.  A lower percentage of interest, but multiplied by a huge population base does add up.  Most efficient add would be WA-OR-Stan-ASU-Utah-Colo, but including AZ or Cal as a package might be what it takes to get a breakout or outbid the ACC.  Maybe even worth taking ORSU and WSU, since killing off and raiding the Pac would finally secure the B12's future.  The Pac remaining just prolongs the current instability, and if the ESPNACC does merge or raid the Pac the B12 risks getting left out of a breakaway.  (I don't think a B1G-SEC only breakaway is possible politically, but add an expanded ACC and they just might pull it off.) 

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