Story about Fox destroying the Pac 12.
Canzano: TV picking apart college football
JOHN CANZANO
AUG 2, 2023
The Pac-12 is in trouble.
The conference has made some strategic errors, blown the messaging and overplayed its hand. But it still has a line of wonderful schools, excellent brands, good media markets and talented college football teams.
So why is TV reluctant to buy it?
Well, in part, because it doesn’t have to — as long as it can destroy the conference and pick apart the carcass. Fox didn’t need to make a big bid on the Pac-12’s rights. Not after it captured the Los Angeles TV market and 5.7 million television homes when USC and UCLA defected for the Big Ten. Then, last week Fox grabbed Denver via the Big 12’s acquisition of Colorado.
What’s today’s target?
Phoenix, of course.
Then, maybe the Bay Area, Seattle and Portland. On Wednesday, the Big Ten Conference presidents reportedly opened preliminary talks to explore additional expansion. They may decide to add Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal. It’s early there. They’re just exploring. But it’s a full-on chess game now, being played by a merry band of pirates.
One of the remaining “Four Corners” athletic directors confessed a few days ago that the negotiating landscape was difficult. He believed Arizona, ASU and Utah wanted to stick together, see commissioner George Kliavkoff’s presentation, and ideally remain in the Pac-12.
What were the threats?
Peers from other conferences trying to “take the league,” he said.
TV executives trying to “own it all,” he offered.
A “major influence” from one TV group, in particular, he noted.
What TV group exactly?
“Fox,” he said.
Did the conference and its consultants piss off Fox by asking for $50 million per school in the early part of the negotiation? Or when it asked Fox’s remote broadcast crews to show up on site to football games? Should the Pac-12 have just taken the network’s first offer and kept quiet because the alternative literally meant an existential reckoning? Are there some antitrust issues that lawmakers should unpack?
Full story is here:
Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal on block next?
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