All you need to know is that Pat McPhee is the new star of "Gameday". The humor will be meaner and don't be looking for anything positive, uplifting, or thoughtful (like your letter today, John). "Gameday", and TV in general, merely reflects the current state of our civilization, particularly our "American exceptionalism"! Help!
This has become ESPN vs Fox. Big Noon Kickoff vs Game day. The brands are being separated and the two networks are pushing the PAC12 demise which they enabled. Sad.
Clearly. The snide comments fit right into that narrative. "We have the PAC12 down, now we need to bury it". I have always thought there was quite a bit of conspiracy in all of this
ESPN had a CFB monopoly except for CBS with the SEC. Then ESPN created the war by taking over the SEC & starting ESPN+ Then they doubled down getting the SEC to take OK/ TEX & the new realignment war started. Fox who had the Big 10 Network helped to get SC/Ucla to the B10 as the PAC12 demise started. Then neither wanted to pay the remaining 10 schools what they were worth and conspired with the Big12 to guarantee a full share to get defections. It worked starting with Colirado. It definitely seemed like collusuon and pretty evil as they jumped in to create chaos only about money.
I can't speak for your experiences, Beaver, but America has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world living here in both total and by percentage of population. I'd say that makes it exceptional. They're choosing it for many reasons.
Corso was rude and thoughtless with his comment yesterday. But maybe an accurate example of how sports media sees teams like OSU and WSU; “not worth it”. As a former coach of young men, Corso should know better. Each player, each team, each conference, the history, tradition and rivalries matter. Except maybe to FOX and ESPN.
To me it has been very sad to see "Gameday" haul Coach, a beloved figure, out the past several years, prop him up, and give him his cue cards. Herby displays incredible compassion and kindness support Coach, but it is painful for me to watch.
We are bombarded daily with “news” reports of similar elder abuse perpetrated for benefit of puppet masters with nefarious objectives. Now we see it with Lee Corso. Shame on ESPN and mcAfee, the “game day” version of the hoody wearing senator from Pennsylvania.
I don't get this aura of greatness that surrounds Corso. As a college coach, he wasn't exactly Woody Hayes, Bill Walsh, Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, or Tom Osborne. Corso has a career losing record and hasn't coached a winning team since 1979. He didn't have an especially long head coaching career -- in fact, he only won 73 college games. And it's been almost 40 years since he coached at all.
That hardly seems to merit the excessive respect he seems to be accorded. If he is "beloved" (if that's the right word), it's because he's an old coot who says and does crazy things.
Bruce I cannot disagree with any of your analysis. In my dotage you could summarize my life as somewhat parallel to Corso's. I call him beloved for the same reason my great grandchildren view me in this light, as good and loving person who always treats them well. Corso is probably considered as beloved (probably too strong a word, entertaining might be better) for the reason that he has filled the clown role on the "Gameday" team, and up until his stroke, done so pretty well. One could conclude ESPN kept him aboard out of some compassion for him, but they don't have that gene (David Pollack). I even agree that I too am probably "an old coot who says and does crazy things", but I am working on it! Thanks for your thoughts, well played, Charlie
It seems to be a part of a PR campaign of their own - belittle and ridicule the screwed-over teams so they become objects of ridicule rather than sympathy.
I’m guessing they’ll also position the new era as the “next generation” of college football, and fans who don’t like it will be cast as cane-shaking relics who won’t stop rambling about the good old days.
If you look ar Corso's record as a coach, a good argument can be made that he didn't know what he was doing then either. He is a joke now and many of us thought of him as a joke then.
Maybe Ol Crimson should Boycott Durham next week and show up in Boulder instead and wave it at Fox. Duke is getting its first gameday ever and after 291 days where Gameday loved the flag its time for Wazzu to make a statement. Maybe remind them how big it was in Pullman when WSU played Herbert and Oregon where the Pirate and the Stash came to play.
If Duke can come back from a decade-plus in which football was funded like an FCS school and had not one but two 20+ game losing streaks, producing an entire generation of former players embarrassed to admit their affiliation, there is hope for their 1943 Rose Bowl opponent and WSU.
Couldn't agree more with this. Honestly. Time for these two schools to go on offense instead of pretending that camaraderie among fellow university presidents will get them anywhere. Both schools have rabid fanbases, but building their brands is apparently what still needs to happen.
The problem is both school's rabid fan bases care far more about this than either of their administrations/leadership. It's the main reason they're both in this situation to begin with.
All Murthy needs to do is look 40 miles down the road at what a good marketing / PR campaign can do for a school / program. Oregon was nothing pre-Knight. He gave them the money and marketing tools to build a national reputation. Oregon State could do the same. All the major programs spend a great deal of effort and funding on marketing. Ohio State? Michigan, Alabama, USC? What are they if not for their carefully crafted and promoted image? And FBS level football is free advertising. How much would it cost to get that image on national / international TV without football? Believe me on this: Phil Knight knows the value of advertising having paid for it himself for 40 years. This is why he invests in Oregon as aggressively as he does
Sigh. A lot I could say, having sat in the top communications chair on five campuses and advised many others as a crisis consultant.
But I’d bore most of you. So just a few top-line thoughts:
1. Universities do not make most decisions swiftly or easily. Many reasons why, but at the heart of it is a long-standing belief in “collaborative consensus and shared governance.”
2. Yeah--that sounds like academic gibberish. It probably is. But presidents and chancellors fear backlash from their faculty (mostly), board (somewhat) and donors (always). The default always is *not* to act. Wait. Think. Deliberate. Consult.
3. Remind anyone of “Rome burning”? It should, because that’s often what happens: problems fester while everyone deliberates. I guarantee you the two presidents, AD’s, consultants -- and lawyers -- have discussed the pros and cons of mounting a PR campaign.
4. Lawyers. Always the lawyers. I wouldn’t discount their influence here, especially as litigation against the ten departing member schools gets going and they gear up for the upcoming evidentiary hearing. Lawyers *always* counsel clients to be cautious. They insist on carefully reviewing, editing or redacting every word proposed by people like me.
5. To a point, that makes sense. Reckless messaging can wreck legal strategy. I always closely collaborate with lawyers and, usually, we arrive at something everyone can live with.
6. Caution comes at a cost. It wastes precious time. It stunts momentum. It sometimes is overkill. And windows of opportunity can close while everyone ... deliberates. Watching Corso on Saturday strikes me as one of those opportunities missed.
7. John is right. WSU and OSU desperately need their stories -- the real stories -- out there. Sooner than later. They need to engage alumni, donors, students, political influencers, and the media -- the only audience people mistakenly think strategic PR is intended to reach.
You are so right about college decision-making. But there is another factor. Most academics have never run a business. Even the biz school professors. So, they settle for analysis paralysis and run horribly inefficient operations with lost opportunities. And, at the risk of arousing ire, OSU and WSU don't have the storied history. I'm not altogether convinces that Colorado would be part of the PAC3 if not for Coach Prime.
They aren't like businesses. Universities are businesses, of which athletics is a "product," Many academic administrators are not adept at business, as opposed to academics- their main " product."
All the universities we are talking about in this matter are not-for-profit organisations that are governed by rules and policies that make them different from commercial activities. It would, for example, be efficient to cut a bunch of sports to make athletic department budgets more balanced, but that cannot happen for a host of reasons. Sure, I am a academic so I don't understand anything, but perhaps people in the real world might not understand the dynamics of a university.
I've been on the boards of a number of nonprofits. If they aren't managed well they do poorly or fail. Of course academics understand a great deal, and many do a great job. But the soaring cost of a college education speaks volumes.
We are living in a cynical, post-empathy world. OSU and WAZZU have been curb stomped and left for dead. It's sad they need a PR firm to craft a narrative to drive public opinion with enough volume to move TV dollars. But hey, if that's the game, get busy and play to win.
I have been saying that for months now and thinking it for years. As a mid-valley local, I am very aware of Phil Knight and his personal history and how he used marketing and his money to build up Oregon. There was not a lick of difference between OSU and Oregon before 1980. If anything, OSU had better Olympic sports except track and field.
Dickert seems to have made leaps and bounds this season as our head coach and it makes Coug nation proud to see one of the highest profile faces of our university speaking out publicly like he is. I liked what Chun said on the podcast with Wilner too and believe we need to be more vocal about these issues. Now if only Schulz approves something like outsourcing to a high profile firm…
Timing/Opportunity is everything and both schools (WSU and OSU) couldn’t be in a better position to go on the public offensive. 4-0 and 3-1, top 25 programs, just played each other in a 3 point game that was sold out and electric as ever. As Mike Leach said “SWING YOUR SWORD”!!!!
John, maybe your statement "room filled with "smart" people" is the incorrect assessment? As I have said previously I'm a Duck fan, but I am also all about "Oregon" athletics, root for the Beavs except when playing the Ducks. It's shameful that the previous and current Pac 12 Commissioners were/are more about getting paid than the success of the conference. The Pac 12 was/is no second rate entity as evidenced by the current national ratings as well as the number of quality quarterbacks who are Heisman contenders. The TV networks should not be held blameless either. How many billions does it take to say we're successful?
Disagree. It was completely unnecessary. There was a good offer on the table from Apple with a $25M guarantee plus upside for subscription performance that could have added $10-15M for a program like Oregon. Net of cross continental travel of $10M the Ducks were WAY ahead with the Apple deal and staying in the PAC12. They panicked or mistakenly think there is some huge payday after 2030. But by then, the entire media market will be streaming and Apple will be a more solid partner than ESPN and FOX Sports, which are both on the block as they lose money
Apple? That deal was nothing more than an add on. How much play even on pre game and highlight shows would the pac 12 had gotten? Streaming is 6 to 10 years from being the main way Americans consume sports...that deal was a death sentence.
6 years is 2029. That is my point. When the FOX deal expires for the B1G and Oregon and Washington are supposed to get made full partners in 2030, the media market will have changed and streaming will be the reality. Each school will live and die by their own subscriptions at that point. Who has a bigger platform for streaming? Apple? or Fox? I expect whatever works out for OSU and WSU to be a streaming deal with Apple. Maybe they won't get $25M having lost the Bay Area audience. But it could be $15-20M with subscription upside. If those two schools leverage the national awareness and sympathy for their situation immediately, by hiring a PR / Marketing firm, their subscriptions will be a lot higher than expected. They may come out of this looking great. It is possible, if not likely, the MWC will join OSU and WSU in an Apple deal which will be a lot better than what then have now with ESPN. Pregame and highlight footage is available regardless of network. Those clips are shared, not exclusive.
Whether or not streaming is the future the reality is linear is still extremely important and necessary. It would be suicidal to go all streaming at this time.
I would have liked the Apple deal if it had been part of a TV deal, not the whole thing.
The Networks vs Pac12 Leadership was like Ali vs Henry Cooper. OSU and WSU got a little too cozy with accepting coattails status inside the confines of Pac12 administration. They can't do that again or they'll repeat Cooper's early out. With the networks, it's a bit like the Teachers Union negotiating with a local school board. The Union does it multiple times per year, while the school board (i.e.Pac12) was inexperienced. Multiple fault points in all this, but conference leadership and the presidents/chancellors who condoned it was biggest contributors. At the end, some sought "me-first" solutions ...understandable due to money pressures from TitleIX and overall university budgets... but OSU and WSU were too trusting coattails would continue to work.
That's a great video! The main point is - what are the conferences really looking at? WSU and OSU. Ranked football teams? Check. TV numbers? Check. Strong fan base? Check. Are we really at the point where these schools weren't selected because of their "brands"? If that's the case, then what are the factual reasons why these schools were passed up? I'm a Cal fan, but to me, WSU/OSU bring more value to the table. Their football teams are better, their TV numbers are better and their games are better attended. Do they play in a smaller media market? Yes, but does that matter if they have more viewers. And if we are moving away from regional rivalries to national conferences, does that even matter? Look at Gonzaga. The reason why everybody wants to watch them is because they are good at basketball. Doesn't matter that they are in a small media market. Doesn't matter that their other sports do not do as well. We can't make assumptions about NIL or alumnae support either. Where there is a will there is a way and I'm sure that WSU and OSU will step up so that these are not the reasons they are counted out.
I feel like we've been getting half-truths from the conferences and media execs about why certain teams are "better" for conferences than others. Give us some real reasons why WSU and OSU are fighting to stay alive and Cal and Stanford (who are both bad at football) were able to latch on. (And please don't give me that tired argument about academics or the student-athletes. It's clearly all about the money and academics be damned.) Clearly these are Power 5 football teams.
I quit watching either game day show. The SEC should be renamed the ESPNC. They have been running the ESPN-SEC Invitational football tournament for way too many years. Their structure is stale!! Instead of Pat McAfee why not bring on former LSU great Ryan Clark? He actually knows what he is talking about.
McAfee played football at West Virginia. Now THERE is a program no one watches or cares about. If anyone, he should no a lot better than to denigrate OSU and WSU
He has said things like this for years when he gets flustered, short on time, and off script. I'm not even sure he knows what he's saying half the time. The blame is on the execs who are petrified of what his absence will do to ratings.
I feel like OSU and WSU both suffer from a younger sibling syndrome behind Oregon and Washington. Both schools have been proving that the deserve to be a part of the conversation, but for whatever reason aren't willing to shout about it right now. I agree with you John, they need to start screaming it from the roof tops, via a firm or otherwise.
Kind of irrelevant at this point...but THE Beavers have to find a way. I hope they can rebuild the Pac or leverage a great season and some of that PR to break down the door into the B12! Like a lot of Duck fans, i feel they got screwed. The Schools that are leaving shoyld walk away from any monies and suck it up.
It also has greater funding outside of sports funding. The funding for research has been stellar for years. Probably why we are moving to the I am not sure conference.
Student enrollment is irrelevant. University of South Florida has 70,000 students. Is it more worthy of being in a power conference than OSU? Obviously not.
I used to watch portions of College Game Day (CGD) almost every Saturday morning. It was part of my Saturday morning ritual.
I've come to realize that College Game Day is a part of the problem with college football. It idolizes the elite teams at the expense of all the others. It's trains everyone that these brands matter and all the others don't matter. When they do picks for a non-elite game, quite often at least one of the commentators will make a snide remark about at least one of the teams or say, "who cares."
The hosts are often flippantly arrogant and rude. I remember years ago the Huskies were chosen for a CGD. They hadn't gotten one in forever and were naturally very excited. For the outdoor backdrop that day, they chose their fabulously old Suzzallo library. I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking, wow that looks amazing! Minutes later, one of the commentators blurted out how stupid he thought it was that the backdrop is a library. It felt scathingly rude.
Before the start of the season after watching the networks kill the Pac12, I decided I'm not watching CGD anymore. I haven't missed it one bit.
Both schools have great stories to tell and , yes, those stories need a wider audience, not only during football game timeouts. And I'll repeat a comment I made on your other post today: these two schools are a great foundation for a new conference. And not coast to coast, primarily because of other college sports.
In addition to football and basketball, there are a myriad of other sports that are just as important to athletes and their fans. And distance does matter, especially with the non-revenue and women's sports.
For example, Stanford, with its huge endowment will have no financial issues sending its volleyball, fencing, crew, track and field, baseball, softball, water polo, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. teams to Boston, Durham or Clemson.
Cal, not so much. And from the east, Va. Tech, Pitt and other state and /or less-moneyed schools are going to look at Title IX and gulp. And wonder if maybe increasing conference size wasn't such a good idea after all.
It’s not just about travel costs. It is time. The other sports generally have two matches, games or competitions each week. If you are on what will be many East Coast swings each season, where does school fit in?
Right on the money John, thank you for saying this! I'm a life long Beaver fan and grew up in Philomath, but I've been saying this for over 20 years. Instead of whining about uncle Phil and Nike buying everything for the ducks, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! It's never been more relevant than now in this situation. OSU has always been their own worst enemy. They puff their chests out and try to tell everyone they're big time, in a big conference (until next year), but everything they do is small time, always has been.
Their actions have never matched their words . If you think you still belong in a power 5 conference DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! If not, maybe you've earned your place in the MWC. The fans can't care more about it than the the school does. Unfortunately, that's been the case for far too long.
Man, that hurts Jim, unfortunately, however it is spot on. I am Beaver from a family of Beaver faithful. I just moved backed to Oregon after being exiled in Southern California for almost 40 years. I think being so far away and living in the middle of USC country I was able to develop a bit of emotional distance. My Beaver pals always point to Phil Knight and comment if we only had Phil. Yes that would be great, and a huge advantage, however U of O has also had a lot more backing and forward-thinking leadership on the sports side of the ledger then just PK. Pat Kilkenny's forward-thinking leadership, along with many others, also had a very significant impact on the U of O Athletic Department. Listen to Mr. Luck!!
Been saying this for a long time. The shade thrown at the PAC in general going back as far as I can recall by national pundits like Corso and Holz served to degrade the brand, and devalue the conference leading to its demise.
“PAC 10 is soft”.
“Conference isn’t tough”
“Play no defense”
From self serving sources who never had any connection to the conference,working for companies (ESPN, Fox, etc) with little financial incentive to support it. Even the pundits with PAC backgrounds always seemed reluctant to say positive things. I distinctly recall Rod Gilmore being essentially bullied into silence when he dared stick up for the conference a few years back. And can you blame him? He’s got a career to keep, and being that “PAC 10/12 guy who thinks they’re actually any good…” was probably a career limiter for the guy. He’s swimming in east coast biased waters.
Narratives set opinion. Back when the PAC was setting new standards with passing games and dynamic offenses that are now the template for 90% of all major programs, instead of a positive narrative of ingenuity, it was called “finesse” by the Corsos of the CF world.
“Finesse” is one word that is destined to have zero respect in football.
The corrosive effect helped do the conference in. Or maybe Corso-ive effect is more apropos.
AMEN...a 20-year continuous smear campaign...only this year, at the PAC's demise, has ESPN talked glowingly of the conference...We play a 9 game schedule, we travel across the country for our non-league games, many times playing two Power5 opponents in the non-conference slate, meanwhile the SEC plays 8 league games, never leaves their southern footprint and is talked about glowingly...check the facts...check the SEC records when they come west (in every sport) and play against the PAC...
The SEC has always manipulated its conference schedules. Years ago, when the SEC only had eight teams, Georgia and Alabama would go years without playing each other. In inter-division play now, they often keep top teams away from each other so as to improve those teams' chances of maintaining top poll positions.
The best teams in that conference usually do not even play each other...They tout the strength of the conference top to bottom, but there are many bottom feeders in that conference. The polls have really become political as the political apparatus of the South is that they all stick together ( a unified confederacy) and vote their own in above the others...I discovered this in 2004 during the CAL-TEXAS debate over the Rose Bowl...Those 9 writers that voted TEXAS above Cal...the one common denominator is that they were all from the South, all from small towns in the South, many who didn't even watch a single minute of CAL football all year long. It's like a microcosm of our political arena...MOB rule.
The Gators game vs Utah this season was their first non-conference game outside the state of Florida since 1991 when they went to Syracuse and lost. They haven't won a non-conference game on the road since 1989 at Memphis.
Corso is irrelevant and needs to go wherever they stashed Lou Holtz. It’s sad they still run him out there. No can even understand what he says. And while they’re at it take Kirk Herbstreet with him
All you need to know is that Pat McPhee is the new star of "Gameday". The humor will be meaner and don't be looking for anything positive, uplifting, or thoughtful (like your letter today, John). "Gameday", and TV in general, merely reflects the current state of our civilization, particularly our "American exceptionalism"! Help!
This has become ESPN vs Fox. Big Noon Kickoff vs Game day. The brands are being separated and the two networks are pushing the PAC12 demise which they enabled. Sad.
Clearly. The snide comments fit right into that narrative. "We have the PAC12 down, now we need to bury it". I have always thought there was quite a bit of conspiracy in all of this
And neither ESPN nor Fox want Apple or Amazon Prime encroaching on college football media distribution—what they view as THEIR territory.
ESPN had a CFB monopoly except for CBS with the SEC. Then ESPN created the war by taking over the SEC & starting ESPN+ Then they doubled down getting the SEC to take OK/ TEX & the new realignment war started. Fox who had the Big 10 Network helped to get SC/Ucla to the B10 as the PAC12 demise started. Then neither wanted to pay the remaining 10 schools what they were worth and conspired with the Big12 to guarantee a full share to get defections. It worked starting with Colirado. It definitely seemed like collusuon and pretty evil as they jumped in to create chaos only about money.
Won't argue the slippage, Charlie, but America still is exceptional...rest of the world thinks so anyway.
They do? That hasn't been my experience.
I can't speak for your experiences, Beaver, but America has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world living here in both total and by percentage of population. I'd say that makes it exceptional. They're choosing it for many reasons.
Actually now skip fat Pat max now too
Corso was rude and thoughtless with his comment yesterday. But maybe an accurate example of how sports media sees teams like OSU and WSU; “not worth it”. As a former coach of young men, Corso should know better. Each player, each team, each conference, the history, tradition and rivalries matter. Except maybe to FOX and ESPN.
To me it has been very sad to see "Gameday" haul Coach, a beloved figure, out the past several years, prop him up, and give him his cue cards. Herby displays incredible compassion and kindness support Coach, but it is painful for me to watch.
It's exploitation, and while I stopped watching years ago, the clips I see suggest that the demands of the job are harming his quality of life.
We are bombarded daily with “news” reports of similar elder abuse perpetrated for benefit of puppet masters with nefarious objectives. Now we see it with Lee Corso. Shame on ESPN and mcAfee, the “game day” version of the hoody wearing senator from Pennsylvania.
I don't get this aura of greatness that surrounds Corso. As a college coach, he wasn't exactly Woody Hayes, Bill Walsh, Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, or Tom Osborne. Corso has a career losing record and hasn't coached a winning team since 1979. He didn't have an especially long head coaching career -- in fact, he only won 73 college games. And it's been almost 40 years since he coached at all.
That hardly seems to merit the excessive respect he seems to be accorded. If he is "beloved" (if that's the right word), it's because he's an old coot who says and does crazy things.
I ever saw him as a great coach. I thought for many years he was a very colorful guy for a Game Day who had been a coach.
Bruce I cannot disagree with any of your analysis. In my dotage you could summarize my life as somewhat parallel to Corso's. I call him beloved for the same reason my great grandchildren view me in this light, as good and loving person who always treats them well. Corso is probably considered as beloved (probably too strong a word, entertaining might be better) for the reason that he has filled the clown role on the "Gameday" team, and up until his stroke, done so pretty well. One could conclude ESPN kept him aboard out of some compassion for him, but they don't have that gene (David Pollack). I even agree that I too am probably "an old coot who says and does crazy things", but I am working on it! Thanks for your thoughts, well played, Charlie
Definitely following Biden’s lead
Much more like Trump. Biden is more reserved, measured, and thoughtful. And positive.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
It seems to be a part of a PR campaign of their own - belittle and ridicule the screwed-over teams so they become objects of ridicule rather than sympathy.
I’m guessing they’ll also position the new era as the “next generation” of college football, and fans who don’t like it will be cast as cane-shaking relics who won’t stop rambling about the good old days.
This is what I think it is all about
If you look ar Corso's record as a coach, a good argument can be made that he didn't know what he was doing then either. He is a joke now and many of us thought of him as a joke then.
Corso is about 15 years past his "use or freeze" date.
Maybe Ol Crimson should Boycott Durham next week and show up in Boulder instead and wave it at Fox. Duke is getting its first gameday ever and after 291 days where Gameday loved the flag its time for Wazzu to make a statement. Maybe remind them how big it was in Pullman when WSU played Herbert and Oregon where the Pirate and the Stash came to play.
ESPN and Corso should apologize for this BS.
If Duke can come back from a decade-plus in which football was funded like an FCS school and had not one but two 20+ game losing streaks, producing an entire generation of former players embarrassed to admit their affiliation, there is hope for their 1943 Rose Bowl opponent and WSU.
They fought so long and hard to get the Rose Bowl away from us, convincing everyone we HAD to have a playoff....that was the beginning of the end.
Couldn't agree more with this. Honestly. Time for these two schools to go on offense instead of pretending that camaraderie among fellow university presidents will get them anywhere. Both schools have rabid fanbases, but building their brands is apparently what still needs to happen.
The problem is both school's rabid fan bases care far more about this than either of their administrations/leadership. It's the main reason they're both in this situation to begin with.
They are on the offensive. If you have an opportunity, read the lawsuit.
Not marketing though, it has been my constant complaint to OSU leadership...
Litigation is nice, public support is better
All Murthy needs to do is look 40 miles down the road at what a good marketing / PR campaign can do for a school / program. Oregon was nothing pre-Knight. He gave them the money and marketing tools to build a national reputation. Oregon State could do the same. All the major programs spend a great deal of effort and funding on marketing. Ohio State? Michigan, Alabama, USC? What are they if not for their carefully crafted and promoted image? And FBS level football is free advertising. How much would it cost to get that image on national / international TV without football? Believe me on this: Phil Knight knows the value of advertising having paid for it himself for 40 years. This is why he invests in Oregon as aggressively as he does
Excellent! On point!
I live in South Carolina, am a UNC guy and want OSU and WSU to grow and thrive. I’ve been ‘reached’; why not many others ?
Sigh. A lot I could say, having sat in the top communications chair on five campuses and advised many others as a crisis consultant.
But I’d bore most of you. So just a few top-line thoughts:
1. Universities do not make most decisions swiftly or easily. Many reasons why, but at the heart of it is a long-standing belief in “collaborative consensus and shared governance.”
2. Yeah--that sounds like academic gibberish. It probably is. But presidents and chancellors fear backlash from their faculty (mostly), board (somewhat) and donors (always). The default always is *not* to act. Wait. Think. Deliberate. Consult.
3. Remind anyone of “Rome burning”? It should, because that’s often what happens: problems fester while everyone deliberates. I guarantee you the two presidents, AD’s, consultants -- and lawyers -- have discussed the pros and cons of mounting a PR campaign.
4. Lawyers. Always the lawyers. I wouldn’t discount their influence here, especially as litigation against the ten departing member schools gets going and they gear up for the upcoming evidentiary hearing. Lawyers *always* counsel clients to be cautious. They insist on carefully reviewing, editing or redacting every word proposed by people like me.
5. To a point, that makes sense. Reckless messaging can wreck legal strategy. I always closely collaborate with lawyers and, usually, we arrive at something everyone can live with.
6. Caution comes at a cost. It wastes precious time. It stunts momentum. It sometimes is overkill. And windows of opportunity can close while everyone ... deliberates. Watching Corso on Saturday strikes me as one of those opportunities missed.
7. John is right. WSU and OSU desperately need their stories -- the real stories -- out there. Sooner than later. They need to engage alumni, donors, students, political influencers, and the media -- the only audience people mistakenly think strategic PR is intended to reach.
8. I’m available. And I don’t cost $30K/mo.
You are so right about college decision-making. But there is another factor. Most academics have never run a business. Even the biz school professors. So, they settle for analysis paralysis and run horribly inefficient operations with lost opportunities. And, at the risk of arousing ire, OSU and WSU don't have the storied history. I'm not altogether convinces that Colorado would be part of the PAC3 if not for Coach Prime.
But they are running college football like a business, and here we are all complaining.
They aren't like businesses. Universities are businesses, of which athletics is a "product," Many academic administrators are not adept at business, as opposed to academics- their main " product."
All the universities we are talking about in this matter are not-for-profit organisations that are governed by rules and policies that make them different from commercial activities. It would, for example, be efficient to cut a bunch of sports to make athletic department budgets more balanced, but that cannot happen for a host of reasons. Sure, I am a academic so I don't understand anything, but perhaps people in the real world might not understand the dynamics of a university.
I've been on the boards of a number of nonprofits. If they aren't managed well they do poorly or fail. Of course academics understand a great deal, and many do a great job. But the soaring cost of a college education speaks volumes.
Awesome insights Barry! Please keep commenting!!
We are living in a cynical, post-empathy world. OSU and WAZZU have been curb stomped and left for dead. It's sad they need a PR firm to craft a narrative to drive public opinion with enough volume to move TV dollars. But hey, if that's the game, get busy and play to win.
I have been saying that for months now and thinking it for years. As a mid-valley local, I am very aware of Phil Knight and his personal history and how he used marketing and his money to build up Oregon. There was not a lick of difference between OSU and Oregon before 1980. If anything, OSU had better Olympic sports except track and field.
Without Phil Knight, it would be the PAC-3.
Dickert seems to have made leaps and bounds this season as our head coach and it makes Coug nation proud to see one of the highest profile faces of our university speaking out publicly like he is. I liked what Chun said on the podcast with Wilner too and believe we need to be more vocal about these issues. Now if only Schulz approves something like outsourcing to a high profile firm…
Timing/Opportunity is everything and both schools (WSU and OSU) couldn’t be in a better position to go on the public offensive. 4-0 and 3-1, top 25 programs, just played each other in a 3 point game that was sold out and electric as ever. As Mike Leach said “SWING YOUR SWORD”!!!!
John, maybe your statement "room filled with "smart" people" is the incorrect assessment? As I have said previously I'm a Duck fan, but I am also all about "Oregon" athletics, root for the Beavs except when playing the Ducks. It's shameful that the previous and current Pac 12 Commissioners were/are more about getting paid than the success of the conference. The Pac 12 was/is no second rate entity as evidenced by the current national ratings as well as the number of quality quarterbacks who are Heisman contenders. The TV networks should not be held blameless either. How many billions does it take to say we're successful?
All the billions. It’s never enough. Never.
The networks, FOX and ESPN specifically are responsible. The Ducks and Dogs had to make a distasteful but necessary business decision.
Disagree. It was completely unnecessary. There was a good offer on the table from Apple with a $25M guarantee plus upside for subscription performance that could have added $10-15M for a program like Oregon. Net of cross continental travel of $10M the Ducks were WAY ahead with the Apple deal and staying in the PAC12. They panicked or mistakenly think there is some huge payday after 2030. But by then, the entire media market will be streaming and Apple will be a more solid partner than ESPN and FOX Sports, which are both on the block as they lose money
Apple? That deal was nothing more than an add on. How much play even on pre game and highlight shows would the pac 12 had gotten? Streaming is 6 to 10 years from being the main way Americans consume sports...that deal was a death sentence.
6 years is 2029. That is my point. When the FOX deal expires for the B1G and Oregon and Washington are supposed to get made full partners in 2030, the media market will have changed and streaming will be the reality. Each school will live and die by their own subscriptions at that point. Who has a bigger platform for streaming? Apple? or Fox? I expect whatever works out for OSU and WSU to be a streaming deal with Apple. Maybe they won't get $25M having lost the Bay Area audience. But it could be $15-20M with subscription upside. If those two schools leverage the national awareness and sympathy for their situation immediately, by hiring a PR / Marketing firm, their subscriptions will be a lot higher than expected. They may come out of this looking great. It is possible, if not likely, the MWC will join OSU and WSU in an Apple deal which will be a lot better than what then have now with ESPN. Pregame and highlight footage is available regardless of network. Those clips are shared, not exclusive.
Whether or not streaming is the future the reality is linear is still extremely important and necessary. It would be suicidal to go all streaming at this time.
I would have liked the Apple deal if it had been part of a TV deal, not the whole thing.
Apple intended to sell certain games to the networks, just like PAC12 Network does now.
The Networks vs Pac12 Leadership was like Ali vs Henry Cooper. OSU and WSU got a little too cozy with accepting coattails status inside the confines of Pac12 administration. They can't do that again or they'll repeat Cooper's early out. With the networks, it's a bit like the Teachers Union negotiating with a local school board. The Union does it multiple times per year, while the school board (i.e.Pac12) was inexperienced. Multiple fault points in all this, but conference leadership and the presidents/chancellors who condoned it was biggest contributors. At the end, some sought "me-first" solutions ...understandable due to money pressures from TitleIX and overall university budgets... but OSU and WSU were too trusting coattails would continue to work.
Interesting comparison considering Henry Cooper scored an early flash knockdown of Ali before being beaten to a pulp.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
That's a great video! The main point is - what are the conferences really looking at? WSU and OSU. Ranked football teams? Check. TV numbers? Check. Strong fan base? Check. Are we really at the point where these schools weren't selected because of their "brands"? If that's the case, then what are the factual reasons why these schools were passed up? I'm a Cal fan, but to me, WSU/OSU bring more value to the table. Their football teams are better, their TV numbers are better and their games are better attended. Do they play in a smaller media market? Yes, but does that matter if they have more viewers. And if we are moving away from regional rivalries to national conferences, does that even matter? Look at Gonzaga. The reason why everybody wants to watch them is because they are good at basketball. Doesn't matter that they are in a small media market. Doesn't matter that their other sports do not do as well. We can't make assumptions about NIL or alumnae support either. Where there is a will there is a way and I'm sure that WSU and OSU will step up so that these are not the reasons they are counted out.
I feel like we've been getting half-truths from the conferences and media execs about why certain teams are "better" for conferences than others. Give us some real reasons why WSU and OSU are fighting to stay alive and Cal and Stanford (who are both bad at football) were able to latch on. (And please don't give me that tired argument about academics or the student-athletes. It's clearly all about the money and academics be damned.) Clearly these are Power 5 football teams.
Careful, John. You're using too much common sense, and as we all know common sense is not allowed in our society any longer! :)
Goes much deeper, much more political than you would think.
I just watched that clip for the first time. I just lost all respect for Lee Corso. Forever. Good luck finding redemption in your lifetime.
I quit watching either game day show. The SEC should be renamed the ESPNC. They have been running the ESPN-SEC Invitational football tournament for way too many years. Their structure is stale!! Instead of Pat McAfee why not bring on former LSU great Ryan Clark? He actually knows what he is talking about.
Pat McAfee is the worst
The. Worst
atta boy Groover!!!
McAfee played football at West Virginia. Now THERE is a program no one watches or cares about. If anyone, he should no a lot better than to denigrate OSU and WSU
I am telling you Brian you have should be the Comish!! Heck, you couldn's do any worse than Larry or GK!!
I used to be an ESPN Game Day regular...Haven't watched it for several years...Nothing more than an SEC/Ohio St/Notre Dame bandwagon show...
couldn't agree more Ben!
He has said things like this for years when he gets flustered, short on time, and off script. I'm not even sure he knows what he's saying half the time. The blame is on the execs who are petrified of what his absence will do to ratings.
Not on Coach, see my note to Greg.
It's on him, and anyone else at ESPN that had anything do to with it. He probably shouldn't be on TV anymore, but he is. Why?
I feel like OSU and WSU both suffer from a younger sibling syndrome behind Oregon and Washington. Both schools have been proving that the deserve to be a part of the conversation, but for whatever reason aren't willing to shout about it right now. I agree with you John, they need to start screaming it from the roof tops, via a firm or otherwise.
Except Oregon State was a university BEFORE University of Oregon ever came to be... The ducks really are the little brother
Kind of irrelevant at this point...but THE Beavers have to find a way. I hope they can rebuild the Pac or leverage a great season and some of that PR to break down the door into the B12! Like a lot of Duck fans, i feel they got screwed. The Schools that are leaving shoyld walk away from any monies and suck it up.
Plus OSU has more students.
It also has greater funding outside of sports funding. The funding for research has been stellar for years. Probably why we are moving to the I am not sure conference.
Student enrollment is irrelevant. University of South Florida has 70,000 students. Is it more worthy of being in a power conference than OSU? Obviously not.
I used to watch portions of College Game Day (CGD) almost every Saturday morning. It was part of my Saturday morning ritual.
I've come to realize that College Game Day is a part of the problem with college football. It idolizes the elite teams at the expense of all the others. It's trains everyone that these brands matter and all the others don't matter. When they do picks for a non-elite game, quite often at least one of the commentators will make a snide remark about at least one of the teams or say, "who cares."
The hosts are often flippantly arrogant and rude. I remember years ago the Huskies were chosen for a CGD. They hadn't gotten one in forever and were naturally very excited. For the outdoor backdrop that day, they chose their fabulously old Suzzallo library. I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking, wow that looks amazing! Minutes later, one of the commentators blurted out how stupid he thought it was that the backdrop is a library. It felt scathingly rude.
Before the start of the season after watching the networks kill the Pac12, I decided I'm not watching CGD anymore. I haven't missed it one bit.
Amen to that...
Both schools have great stories to tell and , yes, those stories need a wider audience, not only during football game timeouts. And I'll repeat a comment I made on your other post today: these two schools are a great foundation for a new conference. And not coast to coast, primarily because of other college sports.
In addition to football and basketball, there are a myriad of other sports that are just as important to athletes and their fans. And distance does matter, especially with the non-revenue and women's sports.
For example, Stanford, with its huge endowment will have no financial issues sending its volleyball, fencing, crew, track and field, baseball, softball, water polo, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. teams to Boston, Durham or Clemson.
Cal, not so much. And from the east, Va. Tech, Pitt and other state and /or less-moneyed schools are going to look at Title IX and gulp. And wonder if maybe increasing conference size wasn't such a good idea after all.
It’s not just about travel costs. It is time. The other sports generally have two matches, games or competitions each week. If you are on what will be many East Coast swings each season, where does school fit in?
And unlike football (and baseball, basketball, to a lesser extent), non-revenue and most women's sport rosters include actual student athletes
Right on the money John, thank you for saying this! I'm a life long Beaver fan and grew up in Philomath, but I've been saying this for over 20 years. Instead of whining about uncle Phil and Nike buying everything for the ducks, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! It's never been more relevant than now in this situation. OSU has always been their own worst enemy. They puff their chests out and try to tell everyone they're big time, in a big conference (until next year), but everything they do is small time, always has been.
Their actions have never matched their words . If you think you still belong in a power 5 conference DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! If not, maybe you've earned your place in the MWC. The fans can't care more about it than the the school does. Unfortunately, that's been the case for far too long.
Man, that hurts Jim, unfortunately, however it is spot on. I am Beaver from a family of Beaver faithful. I just moved backed to Oregon after being exiled in Southern California for almost 40 years. I think being so far away and living in the middle of USC country I was able to develop a bit of emotional distance. My Beaver pals always point to Phil Knight and comment if we only had Phil. Yes that would be great, and a huge advantage, however U of O has also had a lot more backing and forward-thinking leadership on the sports side of the ledger then just PK. Pat Kilkenny's forward-thinking leadership, along with many others, also had a very significant impact on the U of O Athletic Department. Listen to Mr. Luck!!
Exactly!!!
Been saying this for a long time. The shade thrown at the PAC in general going back as far as I can recall by national pundits like Corso and Holz served to degrade the brand, and devalue the conference leading to its demise.
“PAC 10 is soft”.
“Conference isn’t tough”
“Play no defense”
From self serving sources who never had any connection to the conference,working for companies (ESPN, Fox, etc) with little financial incentive to support it. Even the pundits with PAC backgrounds always seemed reluctant to say positive things. I distinctly recall Rod Gilmore being essentially bullied into silence when he dared stick up for the conference a few years back. And can you blame him? He’s got a career to keep, and being that “PAC 10/12 guy who thinks they’re actually any good…” was probably a career limiter for the guy. He’s swimming in east coast biased waters.
Narratives set opinion. Back when the PAC was setting new standards with passing games and dynamic offenses that are now the template for 90% of all major programs, instead of a positive narrative of ingenuity, it was called “finesse” by the Corsos of the CF world.
“Finesse” is one word that is destined to have zero respect in football.
The corrosive effect helped do the conference in. Or maybe Corso-ive effect is more apropos.
AMEN...a 20-year continuous smear campaign...only this year, at the PAC's demise, has ESPN talked glowingly of the conference...We play a 9 game schedule, we travel across the country for our non-league games, many times playing two Power5 opponents in the non-conference slate, meanwhile the SEC plays 8 league games, never leaves their southern footprint and is talked about glowingly...check the facts...check the SEC records when they come west (in every sport) and play against the PAC...
The SEC has always manipulated its conference schedules. Years ago, when the SEC only had eight teams, Georgia and Alabama would go years without playing each other. In inter-division play now, they often keep top teams away from each other so as to improve those teams' chances of maintaining top poll positions.
The best teams in that conference usually do not even play each other...They tout the strength of the conference top to bottom, but there are many bottom feeders in that conference. The polls have really become political as the political apparatus of the South is that they all stick together ( a unified confederacy) and vote their own in above the others...I discovered this in 2004 during the CAL-TEXAS debate over the Rose Bowl...Those 9 writers that voted TEXAS above Cal...the one common denominator is that they were all from the South, all from small towns in the South, many who didn't even watch a single minute of CAL football all year long. It's like a microcosm of our political arena...MOB rule.
The Gators game vs Utah this season was their first non-conference game outside the state of Florida since 1991 when they went to Syracuse and lost. They haven't won a non-conference game on the road since 1989 at Memphis.
They are all that way...When they do come West, they usually get their ass handed to them...that isn't covered on ESPN.
Corso is irrelevant and needs to go wherever they stashed Lou Holtz. It’s sad they still run him out there. No can even understand what he says. And while they’re at it take Kirk Herbstreet with him
Not on Coach, see my note to Greg.
Shad Nichols. Wherever they stashed Lou Holtz 😂😂😂😂