Unannounced Broadcasting Deal: Pac-12 Media Day
If a once-proud, now life support-tethered collegiate athletic conference executes a new broadcast rights deal that could either save its life or delay its death, but it doesn’t announce that deal at its annual media relations showcase in Las Vegas, has a deal really been made at all?
That’s what assembled media and college football fans and would-be pundits have been left to wonder, after Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff told press at Friday’s Pac-12 Media Day that, “We are not announcing the TV deal today on purpose because I want the focus to be on football.”
When asked to confirm the only reasonable inference from that statement — that a deal has been consummated — Kliavfkoff replied, “I think you’re reading too much into that.”
Somewhere, in a Kafkaesque corner of the afterlife, former members of the USSR’s propaganda ministry were seen blushing… but not necessarily taking notes because Kliavkoff’s prevaricating –blood in the water for reporters — made certain that there’d be no focus on football whatsoever.
Spotlight on Football
Which is kind of a shame, since the Pac-12 product on the field has the potential to be more exciting than it’s been in years. The quarterbacks — Bo Nix (Oregon), Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams (USC) — bring national name recognition.
And the non-conference schedule is filled with matchups that will pique national intrigue.
Consider these road tests, all within the season’s first three weeks: Washington at Michigan State, Oregon at Texas Tech, Colorado at national runners-up TCU, and UCLA at San Diego St., the school everyone believes will take its place in the conference.
You’ve also got several high-wattage matchups on Pac-12 campuses: Utah hosts Florida, looking to avenge last year’s last-second heartbreaker at The Swamp; Washington State hosts its first Big Ten opponent in 25 years (Wisconsin) in primetime; and Folsom Field will rock in a way it hasn’t since the Buffs throttled Eric Crouch and BCS No. 1 Nebraska, 62-36, in 2001, when those same Cornhuskers visit in Coach Prime’s Boulder debut.
There’s still plenty for the Pac-12 to sell to the networks and their advertisers, even without USC and UCLA. Who those partners will be remains a mystery. Kliavkoff has played things very close to the vest over the past year, gambling that in the end he’d land a media rights deal that would stem the tide of defections, bring fortifications in the form of San Diego State and SMU into the fold, and cause media and Twitter doomsayers to eat crow.
Some might say Kliavkoff’s looking for an illusory panacea. Kliavkoff would call it the “right deal.”
“Getting the right deal,” Kliavkoff said, “has always been more important to our board than getting the expeditious one.”
Future of the Pac-12
League sources, communicating to credentialed rumor mongers in hushed tones and darkened Zoom chats, claim a new and sexier combination of traditional broadcast and streaming partners —uninterested as recently as “three, six, nine months ago”— has expressed serious interest over the last month.
While this leaves everyone outside the Pac-12’s hermetically sealed panic room grasping and guessing, trust and confidence between league executives and university presidents and ADs has flourished like mushrooms in the dark. At least that’s what they’re telling people.
“The 10 schools [those now slated to remain in the conference when USC and UCLA depart for the Big Ten after the 2023-2024 season] are together…” Oregon AD Rob Mullens told The Athletic, adding that he’s “not losing any sleep” over persistent rumors that the “four corner schools” (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah) could bolt for the Big 12.
The Big 12’s new broadcast deals with ESPN and Fox, beginning in 2025, will reportedly deliver $31.7 million annually to each conference member. Have negotiations with these “additional players at the table,” Mullens’ term for this new group of suddenly-very-interested potential broadcast partners, progressed to the point where the Pac-12 has been able to assure university presidents that it will be worth their while to stay?
“What we’ve seen is,” an unnamed league official told The Athletic in the same story, “every time we wait, we get more opportunities and better numbers.”
Hold that line, Pac-12. To the moon!