The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Uncle Ted]

Yet another step closer to the Pac 12-2 disbanding and the Big 12 expanding... The exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox Sports has ended without a deal:

Pac-12 media rights heading to the open market

The Pac-12’s exclusive negotiating window with incumbents ESPN and Fox Sports has ended without a deal, meaning the conference can now take its full set of media rights to the open market, sources tell SBJ. The next phase of talks is under way with the Pac-12 expected to open negotiations with other media companies for linear TV rights and streaming rights. This is where sports properties often expect — or at least hope — multiple bidders to drive the rights fees higher.

In the exclusive period, the Pac-12 could only negotiate the package of rights that ESPN and Fox had. Now that the conference has moved its rights into the open market, all of its games are open for bidding.
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https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Breaking-News/2022/10/Pac-12-ends-exclusive-negotiating-window.aspx

Media experts say that the new Big 12 is a better value than the Pac 12-2 thanks, largely in part, to BYU

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[Uncle Ted]

Agreed. While I hate to see usc and ucla leave the pac for midwestern farmers daughters, I really hate that this means the end of any sort of regional rivalries in college football.

A lot of Utah fans have been dancing on byus independent grave, and now the dancing shoes appear to be changing feet; but I think all of this schaudenfraud is just a mask from what is really happening: the college football scene is contracting and Utah/byu are is probably left out in the end.

FIFY.

BYU is increasing the value of the Big 12... and the Big 12 will still be the best in basketball.

Fox, ESPN Have Had ‘Meaningful Conversations’ On New TV Contract With Big 12 Conference

The Big 12 Conference has had “meaningful conversations” with Fox and ESPN about a new television contract, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said during an interview Wednesday in Manhattan.

“I’ve had meaningful conversations with ESPN and with Fox over the last 30 days about do we accelerate that, do we think about doing something now?” Yormark said.
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He added: “If I can’t get a deal done with them, we’ll just wait until February ‘24, but we’ve had great conversations over the last 30 days. I think both realize the potential of this conference, they want to be partners as we build our brands and we’ll see whether we can get to an early extension or not.”
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“I can tell you that from a TV perspective we’ll go up [in value],” Yormark said. “We’re not going backwards, we’re not staying flat.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzag...h=322f39d96e81

[Uncle Ted]

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Hey, so how is the Pac 12-2 doing with their negotiations?

[Uncle Ted]

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so about $31m per team (not including all that 3rd tier money from BYUtv).

[Jeff Lebowski]

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so about $31m per team (not including all that 3rd tier money from BYUtv).

Sounds like there is no tier 3 this time. All the extra games go to ESPN.

Also, with football playoff (after expansion) and NCAA tourney revenue, most folks are predicting $50-55M per school.

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[Uncle Ted]

Sounds like there is no tier 3 this time. All the extra games go to ESPN.

Also, with football playoff (after expansion) and NCAA tourney revenue, most folks are predicting $50-55M per school.

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Yeah, not bad. The PAC 12-2 must be banking on Amazon to pay KWhitts salary and all that Cal debt.

I guess I will need to pony up and pay for ESPN+ to watch the BYU vs UtahSt/UtahTech/UofU/etc games.

[SteelBlue]

Man, to go from $6million/year to that kind of money... Things are rough now, but that's program altering money.

[beefytee]

I know people on CB are talking about how horrible it would be for the PAC to be on Amazon, but I don’t get that. Honestly as a cable cutter with no streaming cable channels, I’m now more likely to watch games that are on Amazon than anything on cable. Amazon prime is estimated to be accessible 100 million people right now. About 1/3 of the population.

[Omaha 680]

I know people on CB are talking about how horrible it would be for the PAC to be on Amazon, but I don’t get that. Honestly as a cable cutter with no streaming cable channels, I’m now more likely to watch games that are on Amazon than anything on cable. Amazon prime is estimated to be accessible 100 million people right now. About 1/3 of the population.

The drawback to Prime is they are going to force a LOT of Friday games. Do premier PAC 12 schools want to play a significant number of Friday games every season?

[Pelado]

The drawback to Prime is they are going to force a LOT of Friday games. Do premier PAC 12 schools want to play a significant number of Friday games every season?

Why would that be?

[Jeff Lebowski]

I know people on CB are talking about how horrible it would be for the PAC to be on Amazon, but I don’t get that. Honestly as a cable cutter with no streaming cable channels, I’m now more likely to watch games that are on Amazon than anything on cable. Amazon prime is estimated to be accessible 100 million people right now. About 1/3 of the population.

It’s better than nothing, but The fun thing about college football is switching back-and-forth between multiple games. YouTube TV is supposed to be rolling out a new feature where you can have a grid of multiple games/channels at once. Having to switch to a separate app on your stream box to watch a game sounds like a huge PITA.

An Amazon deal is what you do when you don’t have anything better.

[Art Vandelay]

It’s better than nothing, but The fun thing about college football is switching back-and-forth between multiple games. YouTube TV is supposed to be rolling out a new feature where you can have a grid of multiple games/channels at once. Having to switch to a separate app on your stream box to watch a game sounds like a huge PITA.

An Amazon deal is what you do when you don’t have anything better.

THIS ^^^

I have been out of town several saturdays this fall. Every rental house I've stayed at has only had a streaming option. It's a minor hassle to enter in my passwords and figure out what service the game is on. What is beyond annoying is how difficult it is to switch between games. My wife (who never pays attention to games) even asked me: "why are you watching commercials instead of a different game?" Until streaming services make changing channels as seamless as my cable box does, I will still be overpaying for 250 channels to watch 5

[All-American]

It’s better than nothing, but The fun thing about college football is switching back-and-forth between multiple games. YouTube TV is supposed to be rolling out a new feature where you can have a grid of multiple games/channels at once. Having to switch to a separate app on your stream box to watch a game sounds like a huge PITA.

An Amazon deal is what you do when you don’t have anything better.

Not arguing about the obnoxiousness of having to switch to different apps instead of flipping the channel.

But I think the TV companies (including Amazon here) realize that most of their money is coming from the fan that will pay whatever they need to pay to watch their team. Having different platforms is irritating for the person who is watching other games while waiting for his team's game to kickoff, but that fan's passive interest in whatever happens to be on isn't what is driving the market.

[USUC]

Not arguing about the obnoxiousness of having to switch to different apps instead of flipping the channel.

But I think the TV companies (including Amazon here) realize that most of their money is coming from the fan that will pay whatever they need to pay to watch their team. Having different platforms is irritating for the person who is watching other games while waiting for his team's game to kickoff, but that fan's passive interest in whatever happens to be on isn't what is driving the market.

But if the streaming service is dependent on individual fan bases paying to watch the team, the Pac-12 has a problem in fanbase size doesn't it? There are a couple of programs with a sizeable fan base, but most are pretty small. You can't compare eyeballs on games when they are sired on the major networks because there are a lot of casual fans watching.

I think the Pac-12 is in a tough situation right now. To keep the money comparable (or maybe even higher than) with the Big-XII, they will have to strike a deal with Silicon Valley where a service is willing to over pay. Streaming will be the biggest part of this. But it's a gamble if this will be a success or a major failure. The PAC-12 Network was a gamble that blew up in their faces. Maybe this won't but it's a gamble non the less.

[All-American]

But if the streaming service is dependent on individual fan bases paying to watch the team, the Pac-12 has a problem in fanbase size doesn't it? There are a couple of programs with a sizeable fan base, but most are pretty small. You can't compare eyeballs on games when they are sired on the major networks because there are a lot of casual fans watching.

I think the Pac-12 is in a tough situation right now. To keep the money comparable (or maybe even higher than) with the Big-XII, they will have to strike a deal with Silicon Valley where a service is willing to over pay. Streaming will be the biggest part of this. But it's a gamble if this will be a success or a major failure. The PAC-12 Network was a gamble that blew up in their faces. Maybe this won't but it's a gamble non the less.

The PAC has the pacific coast. That is not a fanbase-size problem.

Yes, they've had poor engagement lately. That says less about their ceiling than it says about their floor. The PAC's bad mismanagement as of late is less a sign that it is incapable of being any good than a sign of how good it could be if it were properly managed.