Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[Rufus]

The B1G should buy the PAC-12 monicker "Conference of Champions" since the B1G is now the leader in overall national championships across all sports by bringing in the USC and UCLA titles.

 

[Vowelguy]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[John]

Pac-12 four have met, without George K

Wow, no confidence vote passed.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

That's a shame. The MWC should at least buy the PAC name if not its obligations

Actually the PAC should buy the MW and still be the PAC
if you
Keep a playoff spot
Keep the $80million. Playoff distribution
Get a bump up on the MW media deal
Add Gonzaga as a BB only
Still call yourself P5

Stanford can buyout the MW with. a phone call.

 

[Forte]

Either way PAC or if Stanford is alone will be G5 now no?

 

[CL82]

Actually the PAC should buy the MW and still be the PAC
if you
Keep a playoff spot
Keep the $80million. Playoff distribution
Get a bump up on the MW media deal
Add Gonzaga as a BB only
Still call yourself P5

Stanford can buyout the MW with. a phone call.

Yeah I don't see the point of a merger when you can just offer whichever of the mountain west schools do you want to join the PAC-4.

 

[mike012]

I think Stanford would rather pay the BigEast 5 million per a school than join that mosh of teams. At least BE is a top bb conference men’s and women’s. There other sports the can put wherever usc and UCLA are. I don’t think Big has women’s beach volleyball.

 

[RSTuthill]

Yeah I don't see the point of a merger when you can just offer whichever of the mountain west schools do you want to join the PAC-4.

Because they have no media deal and the MWC penalty for premature withdrawal is $34 million. Right? I doubt there would be takers.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[jostar1]

Canzano: Could Oliver Luck help save the Pac-4?
Remaining four schools have hired Luck to consult.

JOHN CANZANO
AUG 11

In the course of trying to figure out what comes next for Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal, I learned something interesting.
Oliver Luck is on the scene.
He’s been hired as a consultant.

The 63-year-old has held a variety of positions in his career: NCAA executive, college athletic director, NFL quarterback and commissioner of the XFL, among them. He has four children, three of whom attended Stanford (including Andrew).

Luck declined comment for this piece but I’m told by sources that he’s been hired to serve the Pac-4 schools in an advisory role. The four remaining members are in a dicey spot with limited options, but Luck’s involvement in the dilemma is interesting.

Could Luck help save the Pac-4?
It’s a long shot, but I sure feel better about the conference’s chance to survive with him around.
Stanford and Cal explored membership in the ACC this week, but appear to have met some resistance there. The Big Ten doesn’t appear to have an appetite to expand to 20 schools, yet. Meanwhile, OSU and WSU are waiting to see if the four remaining schools can find footing together before moving on individually.

“Are there four schools when all the dust settles? Is that three? Is that two? Is that one? Is that none? Your instincts are correct,” Washington State AD Pat Chun told me this week. “That’s the first step.”

That’s where Luck comes in.
He was a candidate for the Pac-12 commissioner job when George Kliavkoff was hired. Luck is a terrific back-channel operator who is deeply connected on a variety of levels. His initial task, I’m told by sources, is to evaluate the Pac-4’s assets and options.

The conference’s CEO Group now has only four board seats. The remaining members may feel adrift, but they do have some interesting and sudden control. Also, the conference still has “Autonomous 4” status and the automatic postseason berths that come with it.

The Pac-4 members may attempt to keep an imbalanced share of conference revenue in the next year. The conference expects to receive $420 million in television and postseason funds.

There’s also an “emergency fund” that had more than $40 million in it before the pandemic hit in 2020.
How much is left in the fund? Could the Pac-4 justify the use of revenue to pay San Diego State’s $34 million MWC buyout? How about SMU? Also, is there a media-rights deal out there for a reconstructed conference?

Luck will help the remaining members sort out those answers in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, shortly before publishing this, I reached out to an executive at one of the four remaining schools with a follow-up question: Am I being naive to think rebuilding the Pac-4 is a viable option?

The answer: “No you are not.”

 

[Forte]

Would a future PAC be seen as a G5 or a Power Conference?

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Interview with Washington State AD Pat Chun if anyone wants to listen: Where will WSU go? AD Pat Chun on plan after Pac-12

Our AD should be out there doing some marketing as well.

 

[upstater]

Fine. Texas has no value in recruiting.

Nebraska Football: New staffer believes Texas recruiting dropoff tied to Huskers decline

New Nebraska football CEO Susan Elza thinks there is a direct correlation between the Huskers' decline and the dropoff in Texas recruiting.

huskercorner.com

But what about the stat just posted: the last great Nebraska teams of the early 90s had 6 Texas players on the roster.

In other words, Nebraska needed only 6 Texas kids (I don't even know who they were) to become the best team in football.

 

[noeynox]

Canzano: Could Oliver Luck help save the Pac-4?
Remaining four schools have hired Luck to consult.

JOHN CANZANO
AUG 11

In the course of trying to figure out what comes next for Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal, I learned something interesting.
Oliver Luck is on the scene.
He’s been hired as a consultant.

The 63-year-old has held a variety of positions in his career: NCAA executive, college athletic director, NFL quarterback and commissioner of the XFL, among them. He has four children, three of whom attended Stanford (including Andrew).

Luck declined comment for this piece but I’m told by sources that he’s been hired to serve the Pac-4 schools in an advisory role. The four remaining members are in a dicey spot with limited options, but Luck’s involvement in the dilemma is interesting.

Could Luck help save the Pac-4?
It’s a long shot, but I sure feel better about the conference’s chance to survive with him around.
Stanford and Cal explored membership in the ACC this week, but appear to have met some resistance there. The Big Ten doesn’t appear to have an appetite to expand to 20 schools, yet. Meanwhile, OSU and WSU are waiting to see if the four remaining schools can find footing together before moving on individually.

“Are there four schools when all the dust settles? Is that three? Is that two? Is that one? Is that none? Your instincts are correct,” Washington State AD Pat Chun told me this week. “That’s the first step.”

That’s where Luck comes in.
He was a candidate for the Pac-12 commissioner job when George Kliavkoff was hired. Luck is a terrific back-channel operator who is deeply connected on a variety of levels. His initial task, I’m told by sources, is to evaluate the Pac-4’s assets and options.

The conference’s CEO Group now has only four board seats. The remaining members may feel adrift, but they do have some interesting and sudden control. Also, the conference still has “Autonomous 4” status and the automatic postseason berths that come with it.

The Pac-4 members may attempt to keep an imbalanced share of conference revenue in the next year. The conference expects to receive $420 million in television and postseason funds.

There’s also an “emergency fund” that had more than $40 million in it before the pandemic hit in 2020.
How much is left in the fund? Could the Pac-4 justify the use of revenue to pay San Diego State’s $34 million MWC buyout? How about SMU? Also, is there a media-rights deal out there for a reconstructed conference?

Luck will help the remaining members sort out those answers in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, shortly before publishing this, I reached out to an executive at one of the four remaining schools with a follow-up question: Am I being naive to think rebuilding the Pac-4 is a viable option?

The answer: “No you are not.”

Good move. Luck is the man

 

[Vowelguy]

The same Oliver Luck who’s commissioner of the new ASUN-WAC fb conference?

 

[upstater]

Since this Key Tweet thread has morphed into a bit of a free for all, I wonder what everyone here makes of E. Gordon Gee stepping down at West Virginia. He seems to have badly mismanaged the budget and they are in a deep deep hole. I saw that they heavily subsidize their athletics still, and now the whole university is slashing and burning. On the way out, Gee eliminated entire big departments.

Here is a UConn history professor with thoughts on Gee and also on the WSJ article about colleges and spending:



It sounds like he's saying that after the bump in spending on liabilities and athletic facilities, the budget will return to previous years, but it in no way will match the state subsidy. He believes that the state legislature is primed to allow huge tuition hikes at UConn. At some point here, the school is going to get squeezed. And that's where the E. Gordon Gee comparison comes.

This is why you can only say something like, "The state covers the athletic subsidy" in a vacuum.

 

[Exit 4]

But what about the stat just posted: the last great Nebraska teams of the early 90s had 6 Texas players on the roster.

In other words, Nebraska needed only 6 Texas kids (I don't even know who they were) to become the best team in football.

I concede defeat (I’m not going to look at 20 years of Nebraska rosters). No one needs texas HS football recruits. Even the current admin and Matt Rhule are wrong- they don’t need them. SMU is in discussion because it has cool colors.

 

[jostar1]

Interview with Washington State AD Pat Chun if anyone wants to listen: Where will WSU go? AD Pat Chun on plan after Pac-12

Our AD should be out there doing some marketing as well.

Good story. I can empathize with them.

 

[CL82]

Since this Key Tweet thread has morphed into a bit of a free for all, I wonder what everyone here makes of E. Gordon Gee stepping down at West Virginia. He seems to have badly mismanaged the budget and they are in a deep deep hole. I saw that they heavily subsidize their athletics still, and now the whole university is slashing and burning. On the way out, Gee eliminated entire big departments.

Here is a UConn history professor with thoughts on Gee and also on the WSJ article about colleges and spending:



It sounds like he's saying that after the bump in spending on liabilities and athletic facilities, the budget will return to previous years, but it in no way will match the state subsidy. He believes that the state legislature is primed to allow huge tuition hikes at UConn. At some point here, the school is going to get squeezed. And that's where the E. Gordon Gee comparison comes.

This is why you can only say something like, "The state covers the athletic subsidy" in a vacuum.

Perhaps, but since the University doesn't cover the academic side of expenses from tuition, you can comfortably say that the university isn't footing the bill, since ultimately that money comes from the state.

 

[upstater]

Perhaps, but since the University doesn't cover the academic side of expenses from tuition, you can comfortably say that the university isn't footing the bill, since ultimately that money comes from the state.

Until the state subsidy recedes to PSU levels, and then, like PSU, UConn won't even have to accede to information requests on the grounds it isn't even a public entity.

 

[CL82]

Until the state subsidy recedes to PSU levels, and then, like PSU, UConn won't even have to accede to information requests on the grounds it isn't even a public entity.

That seems unlikely.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Interview with Washington State AD Pat Chun if anyone wants to listen: Where will WSU go? AD Pat Chun on plan after Pac-12

Our AD should be out there doing some marketing as well.

Did you not read the long article posted yesterday?

Dave should not be out there begging right now. That's not promoting our brand. Wazzu is begging because they're on a sinking ship. We are not.

These kinds of out of context "UConn should do X" arguments do not help anything.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The TV money would have been nice for however long the Big 12 gets it, but the Big 12 is not the best option for UConn in a streaming world. Who is going to subscribe to Cincinnati vs ASU vs Texas Tech vs Colorado?

I get that getting a piece of a winning lottery ticket is fun, but counting on winning the lottery twice is a bad strategy. The Big 12 is a collection of misfits that happened to be asking ESPN for a check at exactly the moment ESPN was desperate for inventory. I expect the knives to come out among the members in a few years when the linear money isn’t there and no one cares about this hodgepodge of a schedule for streaming.

This board needs to stop its whining. The Big 12 was never going to be a program savior.

 

[noeynox]

The TV money would have been nice for however long the Big 12 gets it, but the Big 12 is not the best option for UConn in a streaming world. Who is going to subscribe to Cincinnati vs ASU vs Texas Tech vs Colorado?

I get that getting a piece of a winning lottery ticket is fun, but counting on winning the lottery twice is a bad strategy. The Big 12 is a collection of misfits that happened to be asking ESPN for a check at exactly the moment ESPN was desperate for inventory. I expect the knives to come out among the members in a few years when the linear money isn’t there and no one cares about this hodgepodge of a schedule for streaming.

This board needs to stop its whining. The Big 12 was never going to be a program savior.

The Big12/Yormark were not due a new contract before the PAC12. That was Yormark's genius. Convincing them to cut the line on the PAC and grabbing the last lifeboat of network money. Visionary type stuff.