20 Comments

My daughter just headed back to Pullman for her senior year at WSU. I've always found it very cool that schools like Washington State and Oregon State could be in the big leagues of college football. Would hate to see that go away. We'd all lose something.

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Take SDSU and Houston now P12! Amend the CFB and March Madness stakes to award the successful. Team with ACC on its network. Obviously with ESPN, ABC is our broadcast spot. Lastly, and here’s the biggie, lure Amazon or Apple (both with west coast roots) to invest in a fantastic streaming channel. Make each school responsible for hawking packages to its fans. You can tie the paid service to season ticket and sponsorship packages. Does that get us to $55/school?!

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Thanks John. I'm relying on your reporting on the Pac-12 news and you're doing a great job of keeping it real and current without a ton of weird speculation. Keep it up. I'm a Stanford alum and fan, and a Ducks and Beavers fan to keep it local, so like a lot of others I have some (cheap) skin in the game. Keep it coming!

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I think SDSU and UNLV are no-brainers. Make a serious play for SMU and Houston. If the Pac10 doesn't grow it will continue to shrink IMHO.

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If the Big 10 wants that late-night time slot that everybody seems to say ESPN values so much, they could invite 4 more west coast schools and steal that from the Pac 12 as well. I’m sure Oregon, Stanford, Washington and Cal would jump at the chance. It would give USC and UCLA a western division/pod that would greatly reduce the travel challenges the LA schools will face if the conference stays as is.

My gut tells me if that slot was really valuable, the Big 10 would be all over it. And I’m sure ESPN would be happy to pay for it. The conference would get some additional revenue for adding the 4 teams through their new agreement, and then an additional boost of revenue for the “Big 10 After Dark” product. They would then be in every television time slot on Saturday. They could even arrange for a Friday night game as well. I’m skeptical it carries as much value as has been speculated, or the Big 10 would gobble it up.

If the Pac 12 doesn’t expand, they deserve to die. They are almost certainly dead already, or will be within the next 5-10 years. And it’s a shame. But they didn’t get it done with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech when they had the chance. That, and proper handling of the Pac-12 Networks and the conference would likely be in the spot to be the 3rd super conference that survives.

Wishing them the best, but expecting the group of decision makers that have done nothing but fall flat on their face to do what they have to do to survive seems dubious at best.

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Great job John very lucid analysis of the way things are right now. I do think that SDSU is the best fit for expansion. However, I would say 85% fit given the academic hierarchy. My experience in administration in both Cal State and UC system tell me no. clearest explanation of that issue Tony Altimore on SDSU. https://twitter.com/i/status/1560669074043981824 I see SDSU eventually in Big 12. hoping you and john W do another podcast soon

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