Post by Mojave Gator on Aug 4, 2023 16:01:41 GMT -5
It's official. Oregon and Washington are off to the Big Ten. Arizona is finalizing plans to join the Big 12, and Utah and Arizona State will be joining them.
So what happened? Poor leadership over the course of several years is at the heart of it. While other conferences established television networks that were easily accessible and that carried some of their football games, the Pac 12 Network was the last one established among the major conferences. The content was weak, no football games were carried, and it wasn't available on many television systems, even with a sports package. To give an example of how out of touch that the network was, when the news broke that USC and UCLA were going to the Big Ten, Pac 12 Network was showing a replay of a volleyball game that was played months earlier.
As a result of poor planning, failure to address issues and inaction as the college sports landscape rapidly changed, revenues fell far below what they should have been. Since conference leadership was not indicating that things might improve, member schools started looking at other options. The departure of the Los Angeles schools was close to a death blow, but it was generally assumed that there were enough suitable western schools that could be added, especially from the Mountain West Conference, for the league to at least survive. SMU was also mentioned as a possibility.
The first sign of real trouble was a situation that drew little attention nationally, but was widely circulated in western news markets. San Diego State informed the Mountain West of their intention to leave. They were apparently headed for the Pac 12, to at least partially fill the void in southern California. SDSU then withdrew the request without an explanation. I have no inside information, but my best guess is that someone with knowledge of the situation contacted SDSU's AD and told him that the Pac 12 was a sinking ship. Colorado then abruptly announced their return to the Big 12, and the fuse was lit.
The final blow was the failure to reach an acceptable television agreement for Pac 12 sports. The league clearly wasn't prepared when the current agreement ended. They quickly scrambled to assemble something. The proposal was to go to Apple TV for a year, then to revisit the issue. As one sportswriter put it, if you want to become nationally irrelevant, put your games on a streaming service that viewers have to pay extra to watch.
Although self inflicted, the conference's demise will be felt nationally. For me, it will mainly hit on New Year's Day. Although the college football playoff has caused the odd anomaly here and there, the Rose Bowl has been between the Big Ten and the Pac 8/12 for my entire lifetime. For those of us who have grown to appreciate western football, it marks the end of an era.
Good luck California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State.
So what happened? Poor leadership over the course of several years is at the heart of it. While other conferences established television networks that were easily accessible and that carried some of their football games, the Pac 12 Network was the last one established among the major conferences. The content was weak, no football games were carried, and it wasn't available on many television systems, even with a sports package. To give an example of how out of touch that the network was, when the news broke that USC and UCLA were going to the Big Ten, Pac 12 Network was showing a replay of a volleyball game that was played months earlier.
As a result of poor planning, failure to address issues and inaction as the college sports landscape rapidly changed, revenues fell far below what they should have been. Since conference leadership was not indicating that things might improve, member schools started looking at other options. The departure of the Los Angeles schools was close to a death blow, but it was generally assumed that there were enough suitable western schools that could be added, especially from the Mountain West Conference, for the league to at least survive. SMU was also mentioned as a possibility.
The first sign of real trouble was a situation that drew little attention nationally, but was widely circulated in western news markets. San Diego State informed the Mountain West of their intention to leave. They were apparently headed for the Pac 12, to at least partially fill the void in southern California. SDSU then withdrew the request without an explanation. I have no inside information, but my best guess is that someone with knowledge of the situation contacted SDSU's AD and told him that the Pac 12 was a sinking ship. Colorado then abruptly announced their return to the Big 12, and the fuse was lit.
The final blow was the failure to reach an acceptable television agreement for Pac 12 sports. The league clearly wasn't prepared when the current agreement ended. They quickly scrambled to assemble something. The proposal was to go to Apple TV for a year, then to revisit the issue. As one sportswriter put it, if you want to become nationally irrelevant, put your games on a streaming service that viewers have to pay extra to watch.
Although self inflicted, the conference's demise will be felt nationally. For me, it will mainly hit on New Year's Day. Although the college football playoff has caused the odd anomaly here and there, the Rose Bowl has been between the Big Ten and the Pac 8/12 for my entire lifetime. For those of us who have grown to appreciate western football, it marks the end of an era.
Good luck California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State.
