Pac 12 Conference Outlook | Page 8 | The Boneyard

Pac 12 Conference Outlook

azfan said:
It's a question of when not if.

thebarkingcrow.com

Stu’s Notes: Did the Pac-12 Commit Securities Fraud? - The Barking Crow

The Pac-12 might be in big, big trouble.
thebarkingcrow.com thebarkingcrow.com

"One great question here is who the distribution partner is. Is this ESPN? FOX? A cable company?

Another great question is how the financial stuff works from here."

www.ksl.com

Pac-12 fires senior executives after investigation into overpayments from network partner

Terminations are effective immediately; Pac-12 Networks president and conference CFO have been removed from staff directory.
www.ksl.com www.ksl.com

"However, soon after the Pac-12 staff was informed of the situation, two names were removed from the staff directory: Pac-12 Networks president Mark Shuken and CFO Brent Willman, who oversees finances for both networks and conference operations.

A source confirmed they were the executives terminated."
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Comcast, actually. Overpaid the PAC by about 5 Million a year.

There was a great article. Apparently, among the factors -

  • Comcast doesn't share information about the exact numbers when it calculates its payouts, exactly. Apparently they double counted folks for having both the national and local network.
  • The PAC commissioned an audit because they thought they were being underpaid. When it showed they were being overpaid, they didn't believe the audit.
  • There is no evidence or idea that either the individuals profited from this or that it particularly benefited the PAC (except for the additional money, of course, but it is small enough that it didn't materially affect evaluations of profitability, etc.).
  • The assumption is that funds will be withheld going forward, but no details known.

A bad look none-the-less.
 
KnightBridgeAZ said:
Comcast, actually. Overpaid the PAC by about 5 Million a year.

There was a great article. Apparently, among the factors -

  • Comcast doesn't share information about the exact numbers when it calculates its payouts, exactly. Apparently they double counted folks for having both the national and local network.
  • The PAC commissioned an audit because they thought they were being underpaid. When it showed they were being overpaid, they didn't believe the audit.
  • There is no evidence or idea that either the individuals profited from this or that it particularly benefited the PAC (except for the additional money, of course, but it is small enough that it didn't materially affect evaluations of profitability, etc.).
  • The assumption is that funds will be withheld going forward, but no details known.

A bad look none-the-less.
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I don't know the timeline, but was Larry Scott still around?
 
Column I linked above was just comments. Here is full column:
www.johncanzano.com

Canzano: Pac-12 has a nasty Larry Scott hangover

The topic needs some sunshine.
www.johncanzano.com www.johncanzano.com

One of two executives was still living in LA and the PAC12 was paying for charter flights to San Francisco PAC 12 offices. The PAC12 was also renting an apartment for him in San Francisco.

The PAC12 laid off 15 employees and furloughed 79 during Covid. Larry Scott accelerated payment of $4 million in bonuses summer 2020 before laying off and furloughing half the staff. How much of those bonuses and prior year bonuses were justified by the $50 million of overpayment?

During 2019 PAC12 tournament Larry Scott stayed in a $7500 a night 2BR suite that included a butler.
 
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I like this speculative excerpt from Stu's notes:

"Another great question is how the financial stuff works from here. If the Pac-12 got fifty million extra dollars, did it pass those on to its schools? If the Pac-12 wants to give the fifty million dollars back, does it have to go get it from those schools? What if USC and UCLA, who are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, say no? What if Oregon and Washington, who would like to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and could probably instantaneously leave it for the Big 12 if they got mad enough at the Pac-12, say no? Is the Pac-12 solvent enough to front fifty million dollars? Would the distribution partner try to make it do that? Would the distribution partner be incentivized to make it do that because of the real possibility that the Pac-12 does not exist in eighteen months’ time? Was a contract violated here?"
 
The current thought was it was canned because Big 10 schools didn’t think the four additional PAC12 schools would generate enough ratings to justify revenue sharing in a new media deal. Rumor last fall was the Big 10 was interested in getting Stanford, Cal, Oregon, and Washington to form a west coast division.

Makes sense because part of the state letting UCLA join the Big 10 is UCLA paying $2 to $10 million a year to Cal to make up for media revenue share lost from UCLA leaving.

www.si.com

Regents Allow UCLA to Leave, but Make Provisions for Cal

Bruins will be leaving for the Big Ten, but the UC Regents require UCLA to subsidize Berkeley annually
www.si.com www.si.com

It’s a shame that college football destroyed the old Big East and Larry Scott’s hubris is helping college football do the same to the PAC12.
 
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KnightBridgeAZ said:
Comcast, actually. Overpaid the PAC by about 5 Million a year.



A bad look none-the-less.
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That's an understatement.

This is ilustrative of the incompetence boarding on criminal negligence at the top of the Pac-12 leadership.

The rapidly changing division 1 landscape was going to be a challenge anyway but with the lack of any coherent leadership and obvious self-dealing the Pac-12 is really at a major disadvantage which is not news to any of us.

As the top teams flee for the two super conferences the Pac-12 will clearly have one of two options first complete disintegration or second transformation into a group of five conference.

Oregon and Washington are soon to be gone and it'll be very interesting to see what Stanford decides to do.

That said the one certainty is utter incompetence historically leading the Pac-12. I've seen no signs of improvement over the last 24 months.

Given the pace of change the combination of incompetence and inertia is a recipe for the conference disintegrating completely.
 
azfan said:
That's an understatement.

This is ilustrative of the incompetence boarding on criminal negligence at the top of the Pac-12 leadership.

The rapidly changing division 1 landscape was going to be a challenge anyway but with the lack of any coherent leadership and obvious self-dealing the Pac-12 is really at a major disadvantage which is not news to any of us.

As the top teams flee for the two super conferences the Pac-12 will clearly have one of two options first complete disintegration or second transformation into a group of five conference.

Oregon and Washington are soon to be gone and it'll be very interesting to see what Stanford decides to do.

That said the one certainty is utter incompetence historically leading the Pac-12. I've seen no signs of improvement over the last 24 months.

Given the pace of change the combination of incompetence and inertia is a recipe for the conference disintegrating completely.
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Just curious about the "Oregon & Washington" soon to be gone? I don't read every article about the PAC, but I generally skim the local paper and I get a couple of publications related to "The Athletic" by e-mail and I missed that one.

I don't think it is Group of Five material (that was closer actually a few years ago from what I've read). However, if they don't come up with a way to reinvent the conference I fear the complete disintegration option you mention.
 
to be honest I don't know if Oregon wants to leave, it seems they are very content with the Pac-12; despite being there has cost them so many football title appearances. But leave it to the ducks to always do what is worse for them.
Other than the fan base talk, I haven't heard any indication Oregon is looking to go elsewhere. (if they know what is good for them, they should leave ASAP).
 
I haven’t followed college football closely for a few years. Looking online it looks like after Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving the Big 12 to go to the SEC, there were merger talks between the B12 and PAC12. The PAC12 voted it down.

The Big 10 was smart and “stole” the biggest media market from the PAC12. There are articles online saying at one point last summer the Big 12 was interested in Utah/Colorado/Arizona/Arizona State and possibly Oregon/Washington. Similarly to the Big 10 deciding not to take Oregon/Washington because they would dilute each school’s media revenue share, the Big 12 schools didn’t want to dilute their revenue share.

I’d bet even though officially they are being loyal to the PAC12, most of the PAC12 teams would jump to the Big 10 and/or Big 12 if offered.

Good for football and men’s basketball, not good for all the other sports.
 
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Jorislove said:
to be honest I don't know if Oregon wants to leave, it seems they are very content with the Pac-12; despite being there has cost them so many football title appearances. But leave it to the ducks to always do what is worse for them.
Other than the fan base talk, I haven't heard any indication Oregon is looking to go elsewhere. (if they know what is good for them, they should leave ASAP).
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It is liking dating. You can look at the most popular girl in school all you want. However, She has to have an interest in you first.

It is not like you call just up another conference and say we will join next week. Not the way it works at all.
 
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visitingcock said:
Will be interesting to watch her performance tonight against Stanford’s TALL trees. Could we see her matched against Betts for any significant time?
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Hard to say, since I have no idea when Rueck will bring her into the game? I'll be interested to see if Timea covers Haley Jones at some point in the game.
 
Nice battle in Boulder right now, Buffs 46-44 over UCLA
 
Leger-Walker is back again, Cougs eek out a win in Tempe. Surprised that was so close. I think Simmons should be the featured player on offense for the Devils, not Skinner.

Washington, yet again, couldn't hang onto a halftime lead, and was held in the 50s. 61-54 win for Arizona.
 
Utah beat USC. I think the Utes will be tied for 2nd regardless of what else happens tonight.
 
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Wetta sinks a corner 3 w/ 1.9 seconds left to lift Colorado to the win.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Wetta sinks a corner 3 w/ 1.9 seconds left to lift Colorado to the win.
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And that is why the mountain road trip against Colorado and Utah is the one that worries me the most.

It is good to see a PAC12 team beat a BIG10 team .
 
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Cal led most of the game, but Oregon escapes Berkeley with a W.

Utah won by 10, that could very well be the only double digit margin in the conference tonight.
 
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God Stanford is overrated. pac 12 is definitely the most evenly matched conference top to bottom but I don’t know that they have any great teams either.
 
boy that was a bad last minute by oregon state, not sure if it was nerves but they just could even get a shot to hit the rim.
 
My first time watching Gardiner, very impressed. She's a player. Too bad as soon as she started playing, Beers seems to have disappeared. Yeaney probably had her best game as a Beav. TVO had a rough night. She took several terrible shots. 3-14 shooting.

Jones made some big plays for Stanford. Brink had a bunch of shots rim out, not her best night shooting, but 21 pts/13 reb/6 blocks is a darn good game in my book. Belibi didn't really do anything that shows up in the stat sheet, but she had a very positive impact when she was in the game.
 
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