88 Comments
Jan 30, 2023·edited Jan 30, 2023

"Thompson reminded me that Amazon Prime is only available in 42 percent of internet households in the country."

How many households have Fox Sports or ESPN? Just trying to get a comparison between those and Amazon households. 42% of internet households is still a LOT of people that can be reached, and for anyone not currently on the plan it is a lot easier and cheaper to pick up Prime then a stand alone ESPN/Fox.

One huge issue I have is with all the various services I have to obtain to watch my favorite team. It really shouldn't be so difficult and ideally not as expensive. As a current Amazon subscriber, I'd love nothing more than for as many games as possible on the service. I've been really pleased with the quality of Thursday Night NFL games so far.

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Jan 30, 2023Liked by John Canzano

Fully concur John with your “Media Company” position. The Pac 12 leadership (Presidents, Chancellors and AD’s) have proven they can’t effectively oversee a network president and operations, what makes them think they could effectively oversee a media company?

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I don’t buy Bob Thompson’s assumption that 49% of households in the Country have Amazon Prime. If that was so. Why did NFLs Thursday night football choose them then.

I don’t buy not going all in for a streaming service too. Because if that is so then why is the NFL going all in on U Tube tv. I would go for PAC-12 being a top billing with one service. Because I am sick and tired of the PAC-12 conference being treated like a red headed stepchild by ESPN FOX ABC CBS . I would like to tune in and watch baseball basketball football track and field soccer wrestling swimming softball anytime I like and to be able to watch any PAC-12 school I like. Since I am a Direct TV customer I don’t get anything. But I am an Amazon Prime customer so I would get all of it.

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MONEY, MONEY, MONEY...College is for education, football should be about competition and fun. College coaches, assistant coaches and ADs should be paid according to the same scale and professors, assistant profs and instructors. TV money should be reinvested in educational programs including scholarships for athletes and non-athletes. Our values are upside down.

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* Officiating stinks. Both in football and basketball. We put a million dollar product out there with hundred dollar refs.

* PAC 12 Network videos are sub par. Watching basketball makes you think you are getting a stream from someone’s phone half the time.

* Drop to 8 conference games in football. Play Big 12 and ACC opponents. I’d watch PAC12 vs Boise State, SD State or Fresno.

* Don’t expand. UCLA will be back, maybe not SC.

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Sigh, "it's Chinatown, Jake."

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Jan 30, 2023·edited Jan 30, 2023

It is frustrating to see all of this drug out so long. And frankly, there really isn't any kind of "home run" to wait for. The absolute best thing the conference can score at this point is the 2nd worst Power conference TV deal and an announcement of irrelevant new members. Let that sink in. You can talk up SDSU, or any other school mentioned in this article, but the fact is you're buying a K-Mart shirt to replace the name brand designer shirt that was torn to shreds last year.

Things aren't all horrible, and there is a path forward. But everything that followed "USC and UCLA leaving" has been applying polish to a turd.

The only way this could actually be good news (and fun) is if the announced expansion included Baylor, TTU, and TA&M. And that is fantasy land.

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John, you need to focus on UT San Antonio as an expansion candidate.

Big City that supports football (look at the numbers). That weird league that folded a couple of years ago that Coach Riley handled had huge crowds.

You know him- call him and talk to him about San Antonio.

A great stadium and a 40,000 student University.

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I live 22 time zones away - New Zealand - and still get Amazon and Amazon Prime - available in 200 nations around the world. Imagine the ad revenue such a footprint could generate - assuming people elsewhere want to watch US college football. Also I get, ESPN, Disney+ and HBO Max above board, but have no access to FOX, NBC ABC, TBS etc. Well, no authorized access. My 22 y/o and a blowtorch VPN has me covered there.

I'm all for expansion, the sooner the better. SDSU of course, and I'd really like to get Texas on the team so yeah, SMU makes sense, distance be damned. If we could somehow convince Houston and, say Fresno State to join, the PAC will be set.

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Nothing new in this column about media rights. Come back when there is a deal finalized.

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I agree that the PAC-12 needs to start showing some urgency in a public way. I’m sure there are plenty of things happening behind the scenes (and maybe we’ll hear more after this weeks meetings), but I really feel it’s time for TV and expansion news.

As for expansion, SDSU is a no brainer. Makes total sense. After that I’m still stuck though. Boise State and Fresno State seem like a step down, both market and product wise. UNLV with added investment would make sense with the growing Vegas market and good geography for the conference. SMU makes some sense because they seem to have good support and are in a good market, but it feels like if SMU is added the Pac will have to become a 14 team conference and add a couple other Texas schools. I’m not sure that makes sense in the long run though.

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I've still never been convinced that expansion makes sense, at least not with the candidates usually mentioned (SDSU, SMU, etc). I'm all for expansion into Texas if it means stealing Big12 teams. Otherwise, it still just looks like more mouths to feed. If expansion is on the list of demands from Amazon or Fox/ESPN, then, sure, do it. Otherwise, this idea of using SDSU to recruit SoCal seems a bit out of touch with what recruiting is.

I think I know why they are taking so long with media stuff...they must be working on my proposal: https://chng.it/Y5wtKLrd

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John, if a decision is made at this meeting on media rights (and I assume the LA school reps would be excluded from that discussion), how soon would you anticipate an announcement?

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"in the neighborhood of $27 million to $29 million".

So we Pac-12 fans have been lied to /mislead again!! I thought the Pac-12 leadership was confident to beat the B-12 number just a month ago. All this hubris that the all schools are committed and galvanized in staying together?? Seems like the news is changing constantly.

The announcement has brutally dragged on, the news coming from Kliavkoff probably isnt good.

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Given that there are well over 110M internet subscribers in the US, Amazon is gaining on ESPN, which has been bleeding subscribers for years.

It would be nice to do a deal with Amazon that gives the Pac12 sports ‘most favored nation’ status for a few years past the expiration dates of the B1G and Big12 media contracts. That would freeze those conferences out of jumping the financial line. But, I'm just dreaming.

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May have been said before but…why all the freakin’ love for Vegas? They are not part of the PAC 12 yet it is suggested or planned the Title games for conference are played there and sounds like conference meetings are or will be in Vegas…….fiddlydoo on Vegas….plenty of wonderful cities are located within Conference.

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