An ESPN deal with the Pac-12: "very unlikely"
Apparently (I say apparently) ESPNs offer was down to $9 Million per team. That figure could be true, because it was even reported way back in September that ESPN and the Pac-12 were "hundreds of millions apart on a new deal". Those numbers are probably even more true today:
That apparent $9 million a team was a no-go with the Pac-12. Why so low? With USC and UCLA out of the Pac-12, with all the talk of Utah, Colorado, and sometimes Arizona, wanting to leave the Pac-12, and with the talk of Oregon and Washington possibly going to the BIG10, how would any media outlet be confident with any offer made with the Pac-12 possibly becoming the Pac-5? I don't blame ESPN for leaving the table for now.
It still looks like everyone is waiting until summer:
It could turn out there will be no more realignment moves at all this year. The reason? Because no one has had enough time to process where everything now stands in what has already happened with realignments. So know one yet is certain where to go, and what to do money wise to get there. Whatever the case, there's likely going to be some Pac-12 teams unhappy with the dollar amount from whatever media outlet finally signs with them. So, even if those five afore mentioned teams don't move out of the Pac-12 by this summer, they will probably want to move soon after they see the dollar amounts they are getting. Could any new Pac-12 deal be a long term deal? It seems the parties involved will do something short term, so as to not have an anchor around their neck like ACC teams now have.
At this point, it looks like Apple TV+ for streaming, and then ion TV sub-leasing from Apple TV+ on the TV end, is the leading player. Jim Williams of Forbes magazine says there aren't enough votes from Pac-12 teams to get just a streaming deal. ion TV has had some sports already, some college football, some soccer, some wrestling, some newly signed WNBA games, etc. So they may be a channel that could make it work.
But the fat lady hasn't sung yet. Willy Wonka has the only words of wisdom to offer at this point:
If Oregon and Washington go to the B1G, and Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools go to the Big 12, what would be the point of a PAC-12, much less a PAC-12 TV deal?
I have a very big hunch that Washington and Oregon are going to do the exact same thing as USC and UCLA, wait until July 1. The first day of the fiscal year for them. They've already been vetted and cleared by the Big 10. Chances are that ESPN already knows they are probably leaving. Also wouldn't be shocked if Utah, Colorado and both Arizona schools are waiting for the exact same date.
Yeah, on top of this uncertainty is also the issue that ABC / ESPN are a drag on Disney's earnings. So they will be underbidding not wanting to take any chances.
I dunno, I'm excited about the PAC on CW. They can show re-runs of Dawson's and Gilmore Girls at half time.
You know, that Paramount Plus reimagining of Fatal Attraction with Pacey is actually pretty good.
What's the over/under on posts like this from EC over the next week? Side bet: How many Tweets will be embedded in those posts?
one is too many. dude’s a low-rent version of darren rovell.
oooh. tough crowd, tough crowd. i tell ya, for EC,
I don’t know about EC, but that pondTime is very informative.
🤔🧐🙄
/s (sort of)
you must be one of his 17 followers, which, by the way - the count is going up! it was 15 just a few weeks ago!
How did you dig up that tweet from last September?
I was looking for confirmation on ESPN offering $9 million per Pac-12 team. I don't like to have just one link to something. I want as much confirmation as I can find. I couldn't find much in the way of confirmation on the $9 million. There was scant source on it. But that link about the hundreds of millions apart was among what I saw when I was searching. It cam up a couple of times.
ESPN is struggling financially and so is the PAC-12.
Seems like they would be well matched.
Yeah, both go down together. 😉
Just a suggestion (but a strong one): isn't it about time you make a full disclosure to the folks on the MGoBoard the identity of the "Pond Time" Twitter account?
Reason being for my request is simply this: you often embed "Pond Time" tweets in your opening posts. I believe it's only fair to our MGoUsers that they know the details behind the tweets from that account/who authors those tweets.
(edited 5/23/23 @ 10:10am---rob f)
Hmmmmmm
You asked me this some months ago. I replied then. And others ask me once in a while. This is the last reply I made a couple weeks ago when i was asked about it.
I've explained this more than once. Twitter is where all sports stories are now broken. They are not broken on any major sports outlet any more.
And I use a twitter account because you can attach all photos, gifs, and almost any video there. This place is archaic. There are continual problems with attachments.
https://mgoblog.com/comment/244890823#comment-244890823
It's an account I created. I've said that in the past.
Thank you for responding this time. As for several months ago, somehow I may have missed seeing that response.
Would it be too difficult to regularly (or at least somewhat frequently---especially in your OPs) identity "pond time" as being your own tweet?
Well what’s the point? USC and UCLA are gone. Washington and Oregon are out the door almost certainly as well. Who’s going to want to sign a deal to watch Stanford play Oregon State or Wazzu to play Colorado?
Colorado? I think there are going to be a LOT of eyeballs - at least for the first three games this season - so, Boulder will be a magnet of attention in September. What will be interesting is - how many eyeballs will be watching in October, November, and possibly December.
As for the WSU Cougars - college athletics is an arms race - and, teams that can't find a deep enough budget - will struggle. The media dollars, or lack thereof - will just accelerate that realization.
The major networks are keenly aware that the SEC and Big Ten are the only relevant conferences in today's CFB. The ACC, B12, and PAC12 are simply relegation conferences at this point. In fact, if the SEC and/or B1G get too large, I could see them booting out a conference member that is underperforming in football (say Rutgers or Vanderbilt) and taking the latest conference champ from the ACC, Big12, or PAC12.