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Please notice: Some questions have been edited for readability and brevity.
How a lot did member Pac-12 faculties get from the Pac-12 Networks? Have been the quantities equal? — @AZHawk4
Sure, the payouts are divided equally among the many 12 faculties after bills, that are appreciable.
In accordance with monetary information collected through the years by the Hotline, the Pac-12 Networks could have distributed a median of roughly $2.5 million yearly to every faculty by the point the 12-year contract cycle ends in the summertime of 2024.
That’s an important piece in assessing the valuation of the Pac-12 through the media rights negotiations which can be unfolding now and can make or break the convention.
Apologies, however right here comes the mathematics …
The Pac-12’s present 12-year settlement with Fox and ESPN carries a median annual worth of $250 million. The overwhelming majority — about 85 % — is tied to the soccer stock. That’s $212.5 million per yr.
In accordance with the time period sheet, the 2 networks have the rights to 45 soccer video games per yr, together with the convention championship. We don’t understand how a lot the title recreation is price, so for the sake of simplicity, let’s simply cut up the $212.5 million evenly over 45 video games.
That works out to a median of $4.72 million per soccer recreation on ESPN and Fox over the lifetime of the 12-year contract.
Nonetheless, one other 36 soccer video games — or 44.4 % of the full owned by the convention — are broadcast by the Pac-12 Networks every season.
For these, the web income to the faculties is … a pittance.
Once more, the typical annual payout to every campus from the Pac-12 Networks is about $2.5 million. With 12 faculties, that works out to a pleasant spherical $30 million per yr within the complete quantity distributed.
So the wholly-owned, Larry Scott-created media firm generates about $30 million yearly in revenue and broadcasts 36 soccer video games.
That’s $833,333 in actual dollars for the faculties per recreation.
So we’re left with the campuses receiving $4.72 million for every soccer recreation on ESPN and Fox and $833,333 for every recreation on the Pac-12 Networks.
(Notice: We aren’t together with the worth of 68 basketball video games on the Pac-12 Networks or the share of the Fox and ESPN income taken by the convention workplace to fund its annual operations. That skews the quantity, however not considerably.)
Granted, the weekly choose construction permits Fox and ESPN to broadcast essentially the most precious soccer video games; USC-Notre Dame and Washington-Oregon are by no means on the Pac-12 Networks.
However you possibly can see the place we’re headed.
By inserting 400-something soccer video games on the Pac-12 Networks over 12 years, as a substitute of on ESPN and Fox, the convention has misplaced greater than half a billion dollars over the contract cycle.
In different phrases: Because the Pac-12 negotiates its new media contracts, it is going to embody an enormous package deal of undervalued soccer stock.
The $250 million in common annual worth from the ESPN and Fox contract isn’t a wholly correct baseline from which to challenge the Pac-12’s subsequent media rights contract due to all of the video games stashed on the Pac-12 Networks that generated little or no in actual dollars for the faculties.
These video games received’t be on the Pac-12 Networks within the subsequent media settlement. They're a part of the stock out there for buy by whichever community(s) indicators with the convention.
In the event you add the 36 soccer video games on the Pac-12 Networks to the stock pile and take away the price to provide these video games — that price was carried by the faculties — the true dollars returned to the campuses seemingly would enhance at a considerably larger price than the leap in complete worth of the contract.
Prior to now, the Pac-12 was attempting to cease doing so many late video games. Is it secure to imagine that that received’t even be a speaking level in these negotiations? — @UtesNRoses
The evening video games are maybe essentially the most precious piece of the Pac-12’s media rights package deal.
In concept, it may supply weekly kickoffs at 7:30 p.m. Pacific on Friday and Saturday evening for 13 weeks. That’s 26 video games, with little or no competitors, in primetime home windows for the West Coast and Mountain Time Zone audiences.
We don’t know particulars, however it’s secure to imagine the evening broadcast slots are a central piece of the bidding course of.
And sure, the Pac-12 approached its community companions years in the past about lowering the load of evening video games. The response was, basically: Superb, however then we can pay you much less.
That was the top of the dialogue.
Will the Massive Ten give the remaining Pac-12 faculties time to develop a plan ahead? Or will it disrupt the convention by utilizing the brand new media deal to poach a faculty or two earlier than the ink is dry? — @EngelKRichard
From right here, it seems the Massive Ten is completed increasing … for now.
The Pac-12 faculties should determine within the subsequent few months whether or not or to not signal a grant-of-rights settlement. In that regard, Oregon, Washington and Stanford don’t seem to have a lot alternative.
None of them need to be part of the Massive 12; they'd solely make the transfer if sufficient 4 Corners faculties depart that the convention dissolves.
And in that case, they'd in all probability beg the Massive Ten for quick membership.
Now that it seems to be just like the Pac-12 goes to outlive, don’t you assume it is smart for the convention so as to add two extra members within the close to future. Proper now, I’d add San Diego State and go for Houston earlier than they arrive within the Massive 12 and get locked into an exit penalty. — Doug Ware
First, I wouldn’t assume the Pac-12 goes to outlive. That’s the almost definitely short-term consequence, in our opinion, however it’s not a lock.
We view survival as a 4.5-point favourite over extinction. That’s something however an amazing favourite.
If the convention holds collectively, there’s an affordable probability it expands to 12 groups. Why? Due to stock calls for.
As famous above, one of many Pac-12’s chief promoting factors is the flexibility to supply stock for the late TV broadcast home windows on each Friday and Saturday.
To fulfill the stock calls for, it very effectively may need the extra video games that the eleventh and twelfth groups would supply.
And if growth is the choice, San Diego State stands as the plain name.
Houston can be a first-rate addition, relying on availability. We aren’t aware of the paperwork signed by the college — and whether or not it will be topic to Massive 12 exit charges.
Would per-team allocations enhance with out Oregon State or Washington State? Ought to the Pac-12 subsequently think about negotiating its subsequent media rights deal as an eight-team convention, or as a 10-team convention with San Diego State and one other alternative? — @YoniCohen
We’re skeptical a couple of merger between the Pac-12 and Massive 12 (regardless that it is smart for each), however that’s the one means consolidation enters the realignment fray this yr.
The Pac-12 isn’t booting Washington State and Oregon State if the opposite faculties stick collectively.
It wouldn’t make sense on a number of ranges, beginning with the necessity for stock referenced above.
We’ve heard all about market measurement. Has anybody introduced up market wealth? Looks like one clear distinction between the Pac-12 and Massive 12 faculties is simply sheer sum of money in lots of the Pac-12 markets. —@blykmyk44
I’m not conscious of the standard TV networks having a valuation part for “market wealth,” however it may exist.
Absolutely, it will matter to an organization like Amazon or Apple that’s attempting to maneuver its personal merchandise through the recreation broadcast.
Extra broadly, market demographics completely matter to conferences. The Massive Ten, for instance, could be serious about Stanford or Cal due to the Bay Space media market, the entry to Massive Tech cash and the variety of Massive Ten alumni within the area.
Wealth typically tracks measurement: Greater markets have bigger enterprise communities, which corresponds to money.
I really consider the North goes to be tremendous aggressive this yr. It’s a choose ’em between Oregon State, Oregon, and Washington. Is the eventual Pac-12 championship recreation going to be a blowout? Is the South going to have the top-three groups? — @OhItsPM
Don’t overlook: The North and South divisions are not any extra.
Beginning this season, the Pac-12 standings will mirror a single 12-team league, with the highest two groups (by successful share) advancing to the championship recreation.
However sure, it’s fully doable that three groups previously within the South (Utah, USC and UCLA) would be the greatest within the league.
How do you assume the brand new Massive 12 and new Pac-12 examine in hoops curiosity and efficiency? — @vakaviti
No comparability.
The Massive 12 is a vastly higher basketball convention — arguably one of the best within the land nowadays with the previous two nationwide champions (Baylor and Kansas).
Other than three phenomenal weeks in March ’21, the Pac-12 has struggled on the court docket relative to the opposite Energy Six leagues.
And in two years, it’s shedding the one true blue blood.
If Subway supplied Washington a billion-dollar promotional deal however Kalen DeBoer needed to coach every recreation in a sandwich outfit and the workforce needed to turn out to be the Washington Meatball Marinaras, ought to they do it? — @Matt_Hartley23
No. The cash can be good, however the injury to the UW model can be irreparable.
Overlook realignment and assume again to an easier time, when a Pac-12/Massive Ten alliance referred solely to the Rose Bowl. What's the single greatest Pac-12 workforce that didn’t play within the Granddaddy of Them All? — @OllieVonDoof
If that is meant as a trick query, the reply is apparent: USC ’04.
The most effective workforce of the Pete Carroll period received the nationwide championship with a blowout victory over Oklahoma … within the Orange Bowl. (The BCS system didn’t permit USC to play in Pasadena.)
In the event you’re asking about one of the best workforce from the pre-BCS/playoff period that didn’t qualify for the Rose Bowl, we’d have to offer that some severe thought.
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