'The waiting is the hardest part'. I'm tired of waiting.....for a Pac12 media deal, for new members to join...for the Trail Blazers to have an owner to gives a toss....for lower interest rates; I'm tired, man. Just tired.
I for one am getting a little tired of Kliakoff and the who’s in, who’s out of the PAC 10-12. How much lead time does a school need to alter game schedules to join our conference? Let’s get going!
It seems strange to add SMU to the conference. San Diego State makes sense but SMU would be on an island 2 time zones away. George’s letter to the UC board of regents talked about how traveling long distances is bad for the athletes, their families, and the environment. It’s hard to see those previous concerns as genuine if they turn around and add SMU.
In the winter DFW is only one time zone away from Salt Lake City, Boulder, Tuscon, and Tempe and is closer to the last three cities than any of those cities are to Seattle, Pullman, Eugene, or Corvallis
There are more than a few big 12 trolls that follow you john...That's where the SMU leak came from...you report, they listen and spread information and misinformation like wildfires...and IMO big 12 trolls are the worst. There are several with podcasts that are absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible with the intentional mis-information they spread in order to rile their readership, or their youtube viewership, just to get views or clicks.
Ummm. Didn't you tell us about the visit before it occurred? Gee, I wonder how the word got out? You have a lot of readers out there John. Can you blame them? I bet a bunch of them are sports reporters all over the nation. You do a great job!
John C. is right, he was not the first to report this (and I am fine with that). Not even the second or the third. Not that he didn't know it was going to happen but his post was a solid 12 hours behind the first headline I saw.
I am for adding four teams! San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State, and SMU! Let USC and UCLA fly, all their teams, all over the country and then try to win the Big Ten!!
I probably missed it, and it is irrelevant at this point, but how long before the actual story broke did UCLA and USC secretly collude between themownselves - just askin'?
While UW/WSU and UO/OSU seem like “natural” rivalries, it doesn’t always cut both ways. Both UO and UW would cite each other as their rivals. Also, look at Colorado and Utah. CSU hates CU, but CU hates Nebraska. Utah State hates Utah, but the Utes hate BYU! I do think historic rivalries should remain.
IMHO the Pac-10 should add SDSU, Fresno, and UNLV as a business strategy to keep the B12 off of the Left Coast and out of the 4th broadcast zone. The B12 could grab Boise but Boise is 101 in media market size.
Then move aggressively into the central time zone with not just SMU but also UTSA and Tulane.
All of the above 6 would likely willingly join the Pac-10 with a lesser cut of the media pie.
It's more than time for the Pac-10 to get aggressive instead of being too late and too proud and too reactionary.
If you are going to add SMU, probably the 4th or 5th most-watched team in Dallas, then go large in the central time zone. San Antonio is a huge and under-served market and Tulane is in a decent market in New Orleans.
One school hanging 800 miles from Denver makes little or no long-term sense to me.
If anyone thinks a Cal or Stanford versus SMU game is going to draw the same amount of butts in seats as USC or UCLA they are smoking something. Of course no one cares about fans anymore since this is only about TV and the fans be damned.
Quite frankly I would not even watch such a game, but say a Cal-Fresno State game with Tedford calling the shots at FresNose State would probably get me there unless it was TBD, Friday night or even 7PM on Saturday, but of course that scheduling also dissuades any fans from attending games, but once again to hell with real fans anymore
I'm not sure that is much of an issue at Cal or Stanford. The Cal UCLA game (at Cal) only drew 36,000 fans. UNLV actually drew more fans at Cal.
USC played at Stanford this past year and only 43,000 people showed up and that may have been one of their better games, attendance wise.
Neither of those schools do a very good job of drawing crowds.
Oregon, on the other hand, managed to pull in 47,000 for the E. Washington game, with all other games in the 50's. The point being, teams like Oregon, Washington, OSU and likely the Arizona schools will show up to see SMU play, in a Conference game.
I remember when the Arizona schools joined the Conference. They had no ties to the league, but people go see them play now.
I also think local people in Dallas would be very interested in following SMU if they are in a league like the Pac 10.
Actually a Cal Fresno Game would fill the stands with Fresno fans if Cal fans didn’t attend. Same would happen with Stanford. Us valley hill-Billy’s would roll in like the Klampetts into Beverly Hills.
In all seriousness, a valley versus coast enmity has existed for decades. The PAC adding SDSU and passing on Fresno and the Valley will surely be noticed and only add to the smoldering discontent. Hard for Cal and Stanford to claim they own the Sac/Stockton/Modesto DMA while also giving the valley the middle finger. It might add fuel to the desire to split CA into 3 or more pieces.
I've read articles suggesting that Fresno's TV market may actually cover a significant portion of the valley (4,000,000 people or so).
My guess is consultants and perhaps even the media that the Pac 12 is negotiating with have given guidance on the markets they presently give value to.
Fresno fans have long reminded me in many ways of Oregon fans. For relatively small schools outside a major market, their fan bases are both very loyal.
Depends how you categorize the Valley. San Joaquin Valley goes from Bakersfield to Stockton and Fresno has reach across Modesto to Bakersfield today. As a PAC-12 member I suspect they could move up to Stockton. The San Joaquin Valley has 4.1M people and Stockton to Modesto is in the Sacramento DMA.
The Sacramento Valley goes from Sacramento up past Redding and the Sacramento DMA goes east to Truckee and North to Yuba City. Fresno will likely do little to help initially in those areas for at least 10-15 years if ever. It is Ag centric so long term maybe but would take a while.
I suspect that no one past Merced would be interested in FresNose State football. I lived in SacTown for 40 years and people were more inclined to watch UNR, Sac State, the Kings and Bay Area sports than Fresburg. In fact if academics played a part, which we claim UNR is a far superior school to Fresno and we could grab 500,000 eyeballs. Unfortunately SDSU, FresNose, UNR, Boise and the rest of the also rans can never make up for USC and UCLA and the 120 year traditions....its a little bit like the US annexing Canada :)
Well Fresno State has the top Radio Affiliates in Modesto and Stockton over any PAC-12 school. Not to mention I have lived in Placer County and have driven down for multiple Fresno games. So you no one comment has already been proven untrue. :-)
I won’t ever watch a Cal or Stanford game (I went to Pomona College btw) as I find them snobbish. I also listen to 1140 and 1320 often and never hear PAC-12 football mentioned. Kings non-stop, 49er’s yes, Giants or A’s yes, Sac State in their recent run, yes. Cal or Stanford? Never.
I enjoy watching Fresno State, UNR and Hawaii sometimes turning them on over the any eastern game. I am very provincial and do not believe sports exists past Denver and that and that was only because we let their schools into the conference...professionally as long as horse face is running the Broncos if a team isn't near 100 miles of the coast forget about it.
For many years in SacTown I took the Chronicle for the very reason that the Bee ignored Cal and Stanford...at Cal we are only snobby about winning Nobel Prizes and having people like Jennifer Doudna who discovered CRISPR...Pomona colleges, good schools really :)
I make fun of FresNose State but I love Jeff Tedford so I root for them to beat the tar out of bigger schools too.
"I’ll bet he didn’t appreciate that his visit was publicized."
Kliavkoff: "Hey, we can't let anyone know I'm here in Dallas talking to you guys."
SMU: "OK, then the worst thing you could do is attend tonight's basketball game with us at our gym."
Kliavkoff: "Right...no, wait, I've got an idea. I'll disguise myself this baseball cap!"
Love it , Scott!
hilarious.
'The waiting is the hardest part'. I'm tired of waiting.....for a Pac12 media deal, for new members to join...for the Trail Blazers to have an owner to gives a toss....for lower interest rates; I'm tired, man. Just tired.
You are not alone.
What will we have to do, to watch Pac games on TV? I have DirecTV, how many games will I get?
Supposedly getting an Amazon Prime subscription may help in the future.
But if you don’t have decent broadband internet availability…
Sorry. It sucks how things are going.
I'm ok, have access to Amazon Prime, I wouldn't do Apple
I for one am getting a little tired of Kliakoff and the who’s in, who’s out of the PAC 10-12. How much lead time does a school need to alter game schedules to join our conference? Let’s get going!
Measure twice. Cut once.
It seems strange to add SMU to the conference. San Diego State makes sense but SMU would be on an island 2 time zones away. George’s letter to the UC board of regents talked about how traveling long distances is bad for the athletes, their families, and the environment. It’s hard to see those previous concerns as genuine if they turn around and add SMU.
Could just be diligence. Could be more.
In the winter DFW is only one time zone away from Salt Lake City, Boulder, Tuscon, and Tempe and is closer to the last three cities than any of those cities are to Seattle, Pullman, Eugene, or Corvallis
There are more than a few big 12 trolls that follow you john...That's where the SMU leak came from...you report, they listen and spread information and misinformation like wildfires...and IMO big 12 trolls are the worst. There are several with podcasts that are absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible with the intentional mis-information they spread in order to rile their readership, or their youtube viewership, just to get views or clicks.
They subscribe... because they want to know what's up. They're not totally dumb.
Ummm. Didn't you tell us about the visit before it occurred? Gee, I wonder how the word got out? You have a lot of readers out there John. Can you blame them? I bet a bunch of them are sports reporters all over the nation. You do a great job!
John C. is right, he was not the first to report this (and I am fine with that). Not even the second or the third. Not that he didn't know it was going to happen but his post was a solid 12 hours behind the first headline I saw.
It leaked before that. SMU students knew.
I like pac 12 in Texas.....SMU boosters have lots of $$ too. Hell they started nil 40 years ago!
😂
I am for adding four teams! San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State, and SMU! Let USC and UCLA fly, all their teams, all over the country and then try to win the Big Ten!!
I probably missed it, and it is irrelevant at this point, but how long before the actual story broke did UCLA and USC secretly collude between themownselves - just askin'?
While UW/WSU and UO/OSU seem like “natural” rivalries, it doesn’t always cut both ways. Both UO and UW would cite each other as their rivals. Also, look at Colorado and Utah. CSU hates CU, but CU hates Nebraska. Utah State hates Utah, but the Utes hate BYU! I do think historic rivalries should remain.
Former MLB player?…..:)
No, not from Philly.
Someone forgot to tell Texas that their colleges should stick together...
I think they have members in three or four different conferences.
Thanks for the update, John.
IMHO the Pac-10 should add SDSU, Fresno, and UNLV as a business strategy to keep the B12 off of the Left Coast and out of the 4th broadcast zone. The B12 could grab Boise but Boise is 101 in media market size.
Then move aggressively into the central time zone with not just SMU but also UTSA and Tulane.
All of the above 6 would likely willingly join the Pac-10 with a lesser cut of the media pie.
It's more than time for the Pac-10 to get aggressive instead of being too late and too proud and too reactionary.
If you are going to add SMU, probably the 4th or 5th most-watched team in Dallas, then go large in the central time zone. San Antonio is a huge and under-served market and Tulane is in a decent market in New Orleans.
One school hanging 800 miles from Denver makes little or no long-term sense to me.
“That’s the news business goes”
What does that even mean?
Split, Fla., Fla St., Iowa, Iowa St., Okla. Ok. St. (soon), Indiana, Ind. St., Utah, Utah St.,
If anyone thinks a Cal or Stanford versus SMU game is going to draw the same amount of butts in seats as USC or UCLA they are smoking something. Of course no one cares about fans anymore since this is only about TV and the fans be damned.
Quite frankly I would not even watch such a game, but say a Cal-Fresno State game with Tedford calling the shots at FresNose State would probably get me there unless it was TBD, Friday night or even 7PM on Saturday, but of course that scheduling also dissuades any fans from attending games, but once again to hell with real fans anymore
I'm not sure that is much of an issue at Cal or Stanford. The Cal UCLA game (at Cal) only drew 36,000 fans. UNLV actually drew more fans at Cal.
USC played at Stanford this past year and only 43,000 people showed up and that may have been one of their better games, attendance wise.
Neither of those schools do a very good job of drawing crowds.
Oregon, on the other hand, managed to pull in 47,000 for the E. Washington game, with all other games in the 50's. The point being, teams like Oregon, Washington, OSU and likely the Arizona schools will show up to see SMU play, in a Conference game.
I remember when the Arizona schools joined the Conference. They had no ties to the league, but people go see them play now.
I also think local people in Dallas would be very interested in following SMU if they are in a league like the Pac 10.
Actually a Cal Fresno Game would fill the stands with Fresno fans if Cal fans didn’t attend. Same would happen with Stanford. Us valley hill-Billy’s would roll in like the Klampetts into Beverly Hills.
In all seriousness, a valley versus coast enmity has existed for decades. The PAC adding SDSU and passing on Fresno and the Valley will surely be noticed and only add to the smoldering discontent. Hard for Cal and Stanford to claim they own the Sac/Stockton/Modesto DMA while also giving the valley the middle finger. It might add fuel to the desire to split CA into 3 or more pieces.
I've read articles suggesting that Fresno's TV market may actually cover a significant portion of the valley (4,000,000 people or so).
My guess is consultants and perhaps even the media that the Pac 12 is negotiating with have given guidance on the markets they presently give value to.
Fresno fans have long reminded me in many ways of Oregon fans. For relatively small schools outside a major market, their fan bases are both very loyal.
Also I have heard ESPN would much prefer Fresno to SMU. The SMU push is coming from the “academic elite” Presidents in the PAC.
Just out of curiosity, where did you hear that?
Depends how you categorize the Valley. San Joaquin Valley goes from Bakersfield to Stockton and Fresno has reach across Modesto to Bakersfield today. As a PAC-12 member I suspect they could move up to Stockton. The San Joaquin Valley has 4.1M people and Stockton to Modesto is in the Sacramento DMA.
The Sacramento Valley goes from Sacramento up past Redding and the Sacramento DMA goes east to Truckee and North to Yuba City. Fresno will likely do little to help initially in those areas for at least 10-15 years if ever. It is Ag centric so long term maybe but would take a while.
I suspect that no one past Merced would be interested in FresNose State football. I lived in SacTown for 40 years and people were more inclined to watch UNR, Sac State, the Kings and Bay Area sports than Fresburg. In fact if academics played a part, which we claim UNR is a far superior school to Fresno and we could grab 500,000 eyeballs. Unfortunately SDSU, FresNose, UNR, Boise and the rest of the also rans can never make up for USC and UCLA and the 120 year traditions....its a little bit like the US annexing Canada :)
Btw any grammar error is a function of typing on my phone and bad eyes. Not a function of my Pomona College education. :-)
Well Fresno State has the top Radio Affiliates in Modesto and Stockton over any PAC-12 school. Not to mention I have lived in Placer County and have driven down for multiple Fresno games. So you no one comment has already been proven untrue. :-)
I won’t ever watch a Cal or Stanford game (I went to Pomona College btw) as I find them snobbish. I also listen to 1140 and 1320 often and never hear PAC-12 football mentioned. Kings non-stop, 49er’s yes, Giants or A’s yes, Sac State in their recent run, yes. Cal or Stanford? Never.
I enjoy watching Fresno State, UNR and Hawaii sometimes turning them on over the any eastern game. I am very provincial and do not believe sports exists past Denver and that and that was only because we let their schools into the conference...professionally as long as horse face is running the Broncos if a team isn't near 100 miles of the coast forget about it.
For many years in SacTown I took the Chronicle for the very reason that the Bee ignored Cal and Stanford...at Cal we are only snobby about winning Nobel Prizes and having people like Jennifer Doudna who discovered CRISPR...Pomona colleges, good schools really :)
I make fun of FresNose State but I love Jeff Tedford so I root for them to beat the tar out of bigger schools too.
I don’t know why, but I first read the headline as “Bill Walton to marry…” I was like…what?!
SDSU is a no brainer. Fits in the Pac footprint perfectly. SMU I’m not as sure, but they do seem to have a ton of alumni support from what I’ve seen.