The Hotline mailbag is revealed each Friday. Ship inquiries to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or hit me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline.
Please notice: Some questions have been edited for readability and brevity.
It has lengthy been held that the largest obstacle to Pac-12 success within the Faculty Soccer Playoff is defensive position play. What choices are on the market for recruiting prime expertise at that place? Is opening new recruiting areas a consideration in Pac-12 enlargement? — @jlahaye76
It's, and we will reply that query with three letters: S-M-U.
The convention is critically contemplating including the Mustangs for quite a lot of causes that embrace entry to the Dallas marketplace for media dollars and recruiting.
With regard to defensive linemen particularly, the Pac-12 clearly wants assist. It’s an important place however in restricted provide inside the convention footprint.
That’s not the case in Texas.
The Hotline tallied the variety of blue-chip defensive position prospects (four- or five-star scores) in each Texas and California over the previous three recruiting cycles, in response to the 247 Sports activities database.
The Lone Star State has produced 33 blue chippers, the Golden State simply 12.
(And that quantity, like California’s water provide, seems to be shrinking.)
Granted, there's extra competitors for prospects in Texas than California. However entry to the marketplace by a campus within the coronary heart of the DFW metroplex can't harm.
A minimum of some college presidents are conscious of the necessity to enhance recruiting and — for that and different causes — have change into intrigued by the prospect of including SMU.
With the cash to be comprised of a 12-team playoff, do you assume there's a likelihood for one common season sport to go away so there's much less publicity to damage? — Jon Joseph
The participant security situation is central to any dialogue concerning the size or construction of the season. So is income. And people forces are in fixed battle — in any main sport, professional or faculty — as a result of extra TV broadcasts normally interprets to extra media dollars.
I don’t see faculty soccer eliminating a regular-season sport beneath any circumstances. The conferences must give again money to their TV companions.
If something modifications, will probably be the calendar: The common season will transfer up one week and start on what's now known as Week Zero.
In that state of affairs, each group would begin the season on the ultimate Saturday of August with a purpose to create an additional week — an additional likelihood to relaxation — earlier than the playoff begins in the course of December.
And sure, that possible means coaching camp would begin earlier, in late July.
Have any Massive 12 groups delayed signing their grant-of-rights agreements? Questioning if there's any likelihood some may nonetheless flip to the Pac-12. — Justin Steele
I can't verify whether or not the Massive 12 has signed its grant-of-rights deal, however my suspicion is the settlement has not been finalized.
In any case, the convention hasn’t uttered an official peep concerning the new TV deal. All of the late-October stories concerning the renewal of a cope with ESPN and Fox had been primarily based on nameless sources.
If the settlement had been finalized with a grant-of-rights contract, absolutely the Massive 12 would acknowledge as a lot.
So we wait … and wait.
May the Massive 12 colleges be holding out for a proposal from the Pac-12? Whereas that appears extremely unlikely, nothing would shock us.
In realignment, nothing is completed till it’s signed and sealed.
Will the Pac-12 embrace within the subsequent media deal that announcers should be on the location of the occasion? It’s unreal that Fox didn’t ship the announcers to a number of video games this yr. — @UACatManDo
This can be a frustration for Pac-12 followers and campus officers alike, however I doubt the media firms would conform to such phrases. They need management over the deployment of their very own personnel.
You assume Fresno State to the Massive 12 is extra possible than Fresno State to the Pac-12? — @lilcmac5
I do, certainly.
The Bulldogs are a greater match within the Massive 12 institutionally and would assist the convention achieve a footprint within the Pacific Time Zone.
They create entry to a talent-rich area and a top-25 media market — if Sacramento is included in Fresno’s DMA — and they might create extra Massive 12 kickoff alternatives within the 7:30 p.m. (PT) window.
(Massive 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has made no secret of his need for a West Coast campus.)
On the identical time, the Hotline hasn’t sensed a lot momentum contained in the Pac-12 for including the Bulldogs. We see San Diego State because the precedence amongst California colleges.
If one or a group of digital media firms (Apple, Amazon, Google) makes a major media provide that features the L.A. colleges, can they keep within the Pac-12? Or are they legally dedicated to the Massive Ten? — Shawn Kearney
Positive, they may. Any contract could be voided for the best value. However we don’t see it occurring.
Nor will we envision Apple, Amazon, or Google agreeing to an above-market valuation for the Pac-12 except the settlement is sweeping in nature — except it extends past a sports activities distribution deal and includes enterprise alternatives throughout the campuses.
(We opined on that topic within the fall.)
In any other case, any cope with Massive Tech could be a market value and 0 curiosity from USC and UCLA in reversing course.
If the convention arrives at enlargement, do you assume commissioner George Kliavkoff at the least makes a cellphone name to Notre Dame? — Doug Ware
It will be a waste of time. The Irish aren’t becoming a member of a convention — for soccer — till Independence not works competitively or financially.
The CFP enlargement format (six at-large slots) meets the aggressive requirement, and the looming media cope with NBC ought to meet their income wants.
And when the Irish finally park their soccer program in a convention, will probably be the Massive Ten.
When is the convention going to launch the 2023 soccer schedule? — @awesomeshark789
I anticipate information on that entrance within the subsequent few weeks however don’t have a agency date.
Do you assume it’s simpler to rapidly construct an excellent offense (in comparison with an excellent protection) by the switch portal? Is it practical to assume that a mediocre protection could be reworked into an elite protection by the portal in a single yr? — Dave Hayashida
It’s simpler to improve your offense as a result of a lot is determined by a single place.
Discover the best quarterback, and the whole lot modifications — we noticed that with Washington (Michael Penix), Oregon (Bo Nix) and USC (Caleb Williams).
(The success every program skilled with switch quarterbacks in 2022 will assist the subsequent time it hunts for a starter within the portal. Success begets success.)
Though edge rushers and cornerbacks have gained significance on this period, there is no such thing as a equal to quarterback on protection. Upgrades throughout a number of positions are required to remodel the unit.
Do you imagine that Arizona State’s Services District is an unfair aggressive benefit the Pac-12 ought to take a look at? ASU doesn’t should fundraise for athletic services as a result of they created a particular taxing district. It comes throughout as unfair. — @17Readymade
There's nothing the Pac-12 can (or ought to) do. ASU has crafted a income stream that maximizes its sources and works for its enterprise mannequin.
It’s no completely different than Oregon making the most of its ties to Nike, or the L.A. colleges utilizing their geography for recruiting leverage.
Every campus has distinctive benefits and challenges. The convention workplace has no jurisdiction.
And no college president would dare try and legislate in that regard for concern that his/her personal campus might be topic to the whims of others.
A greater query is which colleges have, and haven't, maximized their sources? Which do much less with extra … and extra with much less?
Did chancellor Carol Christ and athletic director Jim Knowlton kill Cal soccer and basketball by pretending this was the Nineteen Sixties relatively than 2023? And if they will’t cope with the institutional roadblocks, why are they of their positions? — @alpha1906
You aren't alone in considering the administration is partly, if not largely chargeable for the state of the Bears’ main sports activities.
There are a slew of points, together with the way in which COVID was dealt with, that created distinctive obstacles for Cal’s income producers.
And definitely, the Bears — like Stanford — are struggling to navigate the period of the switch portal and identify, picture and likeness with out sacrificing the institutional mission.
The wrestle to outline Cal’s athletic identification has existed for eons. At occasions, the Bears appear well-equipped for all times within the Pac-12. At occasions, they appear higher fitted to the Ivy League.
The altering financial panorama has merely exacerbated the challenges.
Utah quarterback Cam Rising has (a leg) damage. What’s on the desk for the Utes on the place subsequent yr? — @DrBTru
First, the Hotline has not acquired affirmation concerning the extent of the damage and whether or not it may impression Rising’s availability subsequent season if he returns to highschool.
Within the occasion he leaves for the NFL or received’t be able to play in September, second-stringer Bryson Barnes presumably would compete with the opposite returnees.
Or the Utes may discover a first-rate expertise within the switch portal.
We should always know extra within the coming weeks with the Jan. 16 deadline for NFL Draft selections. Rising’s future is close to the highest of the record of unanswered Pac-12 personnel questions.
*** Ship ideas, feedback and suggestions (confidentiality assured) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or name 408-920-5716
*** Observe me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline
*** Pac-12 Hotline will not be endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Convention, and the views expressed herein don't essentially replicate the views of the Convention.