We need a lawyer

We damned sure need to sue the Ducks. They are a State institution and acting on their own caused significant damages to one of the other State schools.  

Let it go. Litigation or depending upon some legislative action is not feasible and is a waste of time. Let it go and let’s concentrate on what we should have been doing more carefully. Finding a solution to this mess that is viable. What what was her new last name. Wht say you Barnes?

OSU should team up with WSU and the PAC-12 Network and file an anti-trust lawsuit against ESPN and Fox, charging collusion to illegally put a competing network (PAC-12 Network) out of business.

I had all the math in my last post, but when all is said and done, the 10 other PAC schools will receive a total amount that would have been fine for a new conference media rights deal. But the networks were only willing to do this without supporting the only attempt by a major conference to offer a vertical media solution and cut them out of the revenue stream. They could NOT let the PAC-12 Network gain any kind of foothold, and allow other conferences to get the bright idea to try the same thing. The PAC-12 Network needed to die. It's faced constant headwinds from day one as an alternative to the big boys (likely due to their shenanigans, like applying pressure to keep it off DirecTV), and the last thing ESPN or Fox wanted was for this new TV contract to strengthen it.

So they broke us apart, and spent massive cash to get the ball rolling by luring away the LA schools, and incentivising the Big 12 to get other schools.

A lawsuit should be filed seeking damages to OSU and WSU of at LEAST what they wound have received in a legit TV deal. $35m per school for 10 years is $700m, and I say round up to a billion.

My one wish now is to see the headline, "PAC-12 sues ESPN and Fox for $1 Billion."

Once such a suit is filed, we can agree to drop the case as long as OSU and WSU are taken care of and adequately included in this conference realignment mess. Right now we have zero leverage, so we create our own leverage by filing a lawsuit.

Time to go on offense. I'm sick of this victim bullsh!t.

At the outset, it was, in fact, PSU and the feathered fiends who pushed for what came to be SB270. For better or worse, OSU's leadership took a cautious approach to the process in its nascency back in 2012. This all started back in 2010 when Richard Lariviere proposed the state provide a one-time bonded grant of $800million to a university upstream of ours, which the university would match, then invest the $1.6B, and use the dividends to pay off the bond and self-fund the operations going forward.

The original ask back in 2010 was for the state to act as the feathered fiends angel fund investor, and from that point forward, be off their backs in budgetary and administrative matters, having set the campus forth on its own, financially independent, effectively a state-charted private university.

This didn't go far, but the presidents of the big 3 were asked about any changes to the OUS that could perhaps work instead. From that, in 2012 SB270 ultimately emerged, with UO and PSU leading the charge for an independent board. OSU did not lead this charge, but kind of hung halfway back saying, "well, there are these pros and there are also these cons..."

Ultimately, though, when it became clear that SB270 was going to pass, and that two of the OUS schools would be leaving that conference, it was put to the remaining campuses to determine if they wanted to be in a new conference, or run independently. (Oops - did I say conference? I meant system and consortium, in that order...) This led to a fascinating, often turbulent set of discussions on the Corvallis campus. Did we want to stay and play with others, or have our own board? This conversation can perhaps be best summed up by the conversation that occurred on May 9, 2013, in the Faculty Senate. Ed Ray (remember Ed?) was invited to put the question to the Senate, and encourage the continued debate...for a while at least, as there was a deadline coming up if we wanted to have a board of our own.

You can hear this conversation, with Ed's perspective and a number of useful questions and comments from OSU faculty right here: OSU Faculty Senate May 9 2013 Part 7 of 8 

This meeting helped shape the decision to opt for our own independent board. We were the last of the big three to opt for this - rather than "push[ing] for and ha[ving] a law pass" OSU waited it out, watched to see how the final landscape would look, weighed the options, then decided to dive in.

As it turns out, it was a good choice. But SB270 wasn't our idea, it wasn't our fight, and we almost opted out. But OSU is arguably in a better place now that we've been running with one of the stronger boards of trustees in the states constellation of campuses.