It's become a real possibility The CW will get the Pac-12 media deal
With USC and UCLA leaving the Pac-12 all the big players have backed out of any deal. It also looks like this possible deal with The CW is not sitting well with Oregon and Washington. Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado have (apparently) already been eyeing the Big-12.
Could The CW really get this TV deal?
Is it time to start throwing dirt on the Pac-12 grave?
Sure - I don't think I have said anything that suggest certainty on either course of action; either standing pat or expanding.
At this point in time, there have been no public discussions on expansion. This isn't a sign of anything, since such negotiations would be very secretive (no one had an inkling of the Texas/OU move nor the USC/UCLA move until they happened), silence isn't surprising either.
I think we are at a point of rehashing previous discussion however.
Its my opinion that the Pac12 stands pat and becomes the Pac10, at least for the next couple of years...Arguments of adding Colorado St, Wyoming, SDSU and/or Fresno St have merit, so I would not be surprised if they do that too.
I would be surprised for those things to occur prior to the signing of the next deal - unless that merger is holding up the deal.
no one knows expect the guys in the room but it will be interesting to see what they do.
I'm curious what the valid arguments would be for Colorado St and Wyoming over Boise. Boise's a bigger market then both Fort Collins and Laramie/Cheyenne.
Colorado State brings a natural rival for Colorado and hopefully keeps them from bolting back to the Big 12, while keeping them in the Denver market should Colorado still decide to leave. 2nd largest endowment in the MWC, which is important to a research focused conference like the PAC12.
Wyoming has by far the largest endowment in the MWC, which is again important to a research focused conference that is losing USC and UCLA.
Boise has the 2nd smallest endowment in the MWC, only Air Force is smaller. $400 million less than CSU, and $700 million less than Wyoming. While Boise IS a bigger market than Cheyenne, we’re looking at a population difference of ~200,000 people. Which really isn’t going to move the needle when you’re talking about market size and isn’t enough to outweigh other factors such as academics and endowment funding.
Markets are a factor. But they’re not the only factor, and you’d have an uphill battle trying to argue adding a ~250,000 population market as a standalone positive. Boise State isn’t strong enough academically and they don’t have the funding. You’d essentially be adding them simply because they’re usually good at football and generally pretty good at basketball.
Only good thing about the CW is Penn & Teller Fool Us and Whose Line Is It Anyway
Gen-X here. IIRC Fox wasn’t much more than The Simpsons and Married with Children before they got the NFL deal. This is likely CWs attempt to be relevant. But with the PAC, they’ll need a few other conferences.
This is definitely not good for the PAC. At all. How the mighty have fallen. No one will change their network from ABC to CW with this, like many CBS affiliates did CNS to Fox back in the 90s. Detroit 2 used to be CBS.
This is all more intriguing than the other conference moves have been. Do AZ, AZ St, Colorado and Utah take this deal, or do they move to the Big12?
FACINATING!
Fox got a ton of mileage from the NFL. But I remember the NHL being on ESPN in the mid to late 80s and the sport starting to pick up more casual fans (ESPN didn't have every sport under the sun back then) and then moved their package to some regional Northeast network who's name I can't remember. It was the dumbest move they ever made.
In other words, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and my guess is the Pac-12 doesn't move enough eyeballs to make it work.
wasn't the nhl on the outdoor life network for a while?
Yes it was. Then it was called Versus (vs) and that changed to NBCSN.
Yea, that happened post-mid 2000s lockout when the league was really down and there weren’t any good young, marketable stars and most of the league outside of the traditional powers absolutely sucked.
Ah, yes, CW where in Riverdale Archie is a GILF hunter.
Followed by Dawson's creek
Can’t wait to eventually see Oregon State - Washington State on C-SPAN 3.
Now this is funny...or maybe ESPN will bring back the Ocho and air PAC 12 games after the dodgeball semi-finals are aired in their entirety.
The CW, was also known as the Mary Camden network, and for good reason.
Great, the PAC 12 games will become teen rom coms...
I’m pretty sure I’ve never watched anything on the CW.
Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and pretty little liars. It would made sense for USC to play after that. Now it doesn’t make sense.
It seems beyond comprehension that Larry Scott could have taken a entertainment property like the PAC-12 and destroyed it so thoroughly. He must have been in the pay of the SEC and Big 12.
I'm in favor of adding Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Cal, so this looks like good news to me.
Cal is interesting. Really good academics, generally really good non-revenue sports but the football and basketball programs are really bad.
Kind of hilarious for Colorado to potentially hop back to the Big 12 to get out of a bad situation in the Pac 12. They were the first domino to fall in the 2010s realignment.
I'll be very happy if the CW picks up the Pac-12. I don't pay for cable and look forward to seeing as many Big Ten games on Fox, CBS and NBC as possible. And look forward to being able to catch Pac-12 games on CW, even if the production value on CW turns out to be poor having an interesting game trumps production value.