Post by ochobeavo on Sept 5, 2023 12:45:58 GMT -8
Not sure if this has been posted here previously..
theathletic.com/4826750/2023/09/01/oregon-state-washington-state-pac-12-mwc/
Can Oregon State, Washington State keep ‘Pac-12’ alive? Or is Mountain West inevitable?
With Stanford, Cal and SMU landing invites to the ACC on Friday, college sports’ conference realignment revolving door of the past three years has finally closed. (We think.) In the end, 17 schools either moved up to a Power 5 conference or flipped from one Power 5 league to another.
But two, Oregon State and Washington State, have been kicked out of the club.
Oregon State just completed a $161 million renovation of its stadium. Jonathan Smith’s football team won 10 games last season and is ranked 18th in the preseason polls.
And yet, it doesn’t have a home.
“I’m sorry that a top-20 football team ends up where we are because of the focus on media rights and media valuations,” Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy said Friday.
With the American Athletic Conference saying it will “not look westward,” the Mountain West seems like the obvious landing spot for the two Pacific Northwest schools, which would mean a precipitous drop from a Power 5 league that distributed $37 million per-school revenue in 2021-22 to a Group of 5 conference whose payout was less than $10 million.
But the schools are not there yet. Believe it or not, they’re still trying to steer the Titanic to safety.
“We’ve had a number of conversations about what our path forward might look like in retaining the Pac-12 and its potential assets and status,” Oregon State AD Scott Barnes said Friday. “And those are items that certainly weigh into the decision of others to want to want to be part of a new Pac-12.”
Impossible, right?
Perhaps not.
According to an industry source, the two may now be the sole beneficiaries of a significant amount of revenue coming the Pac-12’s way. For one thing, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament units its teams have accrued stay with the conference, and those units are distributed over a six-year period. That source estimates the number at around $90 million over six years.
Stanford and Cal know ACC move has challenges, but it also offers needed relief
The conference is also due a significantly higher share of College Football Playoff revenue than the Group of 5 leagues for at least the last two years of the current contract. Per the CFP’s website, that number last year was $79.4 million for each Power 5 conference, whereas the Group of 5 leagues shared $103 million between them.
It would take a unanimous vote by the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame to amend the contract prior to its 2025 expiration. We can guess one league that would oppose it — if it still exists then.
The conference also has two years left on its contract with the Rose Bowl, for which ESPN paid an annual $80 million average over 12 years beginning in 2014 (the number would be higher than that now), as well as deals with its other bowl partners. It’s not yet clear whether any or all have out clauses based on conference composition.
And of course, the decades-old Pac-12 (or Pac-8, or Pac-10) brand and logo theoretically hold more monetary value and prestige than the Mountain West’s. The league is even written into the NCAA bylaws as one of five so-called autonomy conferences with special voting privileges.
But the Pac-12 has outstanding liabilities as well. It is a defendant or co-defendant in multiple ongoing lawsuits. Two former Pac-12 Network execs recently sued the Pac-12 for wrongful termination stemming from connection to the discovery of Comcast’s years of unreimbursed overpayments, as did the Holiday Bowl for UCLA pulling out of the 2021 game at the 11th hour due to a reported COVID-19 outbreak. The Pac-12 is also a named in a National Labor Relations Board complaint alleging that USC athletes should be classified as employees.
The goal for Oregon State and Washington State would be to lure the most desirable programs from not just the Mountain West, but the AAC too, without having to get into bed with their bottom-feeders. A theoretical conference with, say, the Cougars and Beavers plus Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Tulane, Memphis, Air Force and Colorado State would not be of Power 5-caliber, but it would perhaps be more attractive to a TV partner than the current Mountain West-plus two.
But the schools’ lawyers and accountants will need to figure out fairly quickly how much money is truly in the league’s war chest, because they might need it to help cover some hefty exit fees. Mountain West schools would owe a prohibitive $34 million were they to leave in time for next school year, $17 million after that. The AAC’s exit fee is a more modest $10 million but with a 27-month departure notice.
That’s a lot of billable hours.
Which brings us to the most extreme but perhaps most intriguing option.
NCAA bylaws require a conference to have at least eight members — but there is a two-year grace period to get back to that number. Silly as it sounds, the Pac-12 could theoretically operate as a two-team conference in 2024-25 and 2025-26, with Oregon State and Washington State largely making their own schedules.
In other words: Stall.
Who knows where realignment will be by 2026? Maybe the Big 12 will be open to further expansion by then. Maybe Florida State, Clemson and UNC ditch the ACC and that conference has to turn around and add more teams.
ACC expansion wasn't unanimous, but 'you either get busy or you get left behind'
But if nothing else, 2026 is also when the Mountain West’s current deals with Fox and CBS expire, at which point all those schools become free agents.
It’s a lot to figure out, and it has to be figured out fairly quickly if Oregon State and Washington State hope to have opponents lined up by next football season. It may be that simply joining the Mountain West is the most viable option.
But it sure sounds like they’re focused on other options.
“We’re trying to figure out the best path forward while simultaneously pursuing other opportunities,” Murthy said. “Preserving the Pac-12 in some form, we believe, helps continue more than 100 years of sports history and tradition. It’s really important to us.”
(Photo: Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)
theathletic.com/4826750/2023/09/01/oregon-state-washington-state-pac-12-mwc/
Can Oregon State, Washington State keep ‘Pac-12’ alive? Or is Mountain West inevitable?
With Stanford, Cal and SMU landing invites to the ACC on Friday, college sports’ conference realignment revolving door of the past three years has finally closed. (We think.) In the end, 17 schools either moved up to a Power 5 conference or flipped from one Power 5 league to another.
But two, Oregon State and Washington State, have been kicked out of the club.
Oregon State just completed a $161 million renovation of its stadium. Jonathan Smith’s football team won 10 games last season and is ranked 18th in the preseason polls.
And yet, it doesn’t have a home.
“I’m sorry that a top-20 football team ends up where we are because of the focus on media rights and media valuations,” Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy said Friday.
With the American Athletic Conference saying it will “not look westward,” the Mountain West seems like the obvious landing spot for the two Pacific Northwest schools, which would mean a precipitous drop from a Power 5 league that distributed $37 million per-school revenue in 2021-22 to a Group of 5 conference whose payout was less than $10 million.
But the schools are not there yet. Believe it or not, they’re still trying to steer the Titanic to safety.
“We’ve had a number of conversations about what our path forward might look like in retaining the Pac-12 and its potential assets and status,” Oregon State AD Scott Barnes said Friday. “And those are items that certainly weigh into the decision of others to want to want to be part of a new Pac-12.”
Impossible, right?
Perhaps not.
According to an industry source, the two may now be the sole beneficiaries of a significant amount of revenue coming the Pac-12’s way. For one thing, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament units its teams have accrued stay with the conference, and those units are distributed over a six-year period. That source estimates the number at around $90 million over six years.
Stanford and Cal know ACC move has challenges, but it also offers needed relief
The conference is also due a significantly higher share of College Football Playoff revenue than the Group of 5 leagues for at least the last two years of the current contract. Per the CFP’s website, that number last year was $79.4 million for each Power 5 conference, whereas the Group of 5 leagues shared $103 million between them.
It would take a unanimous vote by the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame to amend the contract prior to its 2025 expiration. We can guess one league that would oppose it — if it still exists then.
The conference also has two years left on its contract with the Rose Bowl, for which ESPN paid an annual $80 million average over 12 years beginning in 2014 (the number would be higher than that now), as well as deals with its other bowl partners. It’s not yet clear whether any or all have out clauses based on conference composition.
And of course, the decades-old Pac-12 (or Pac-8, or Pac-10) brand and logo theoretically hold more monetary value and prestige than the Mountain West’s. The league is even written into the NCAA bylaws as one of five so-called autonomy conferences with special voting privileges.
But the Pac-12 has outstanding liabilities as well. It is a defendant or co-defendant in multiple ongoing lawsuits. Two former Pac-12 Network execs recently sued the Pac-12 for wrongful termination stemming from connection to the discovery of Comcast’s years of unreimbursed overpayments, as did the Holiday Bowl for UCLA pulling out of the 2021 game at the 11th hour due to a reported COVID-19 outbreak. The Pac-12 is also a named in a National Labor Relations Board complaint alleging that USC athletes should be classified as employees.
The goal for Oregon State and Washington State would be to lure the most desirable programs from not just the Mountain West, but the AAC too, without having to get into bed with their bottom-feeders. A theoretical conference with, say, the Cougars and Beavers plus Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Tulane, Memphis, Air Force and Colorado State would not be of Power 5-caliber, but it would perhaps be more attractive to a TV partner than the current Mountain West-plus two.
But the schools’ lawyers and accountants will need to figure out fairly quickly how much money is truly in the league’s war chest, because they might need it to help cover some hefty exit fees. Mountain West schools would owe a prohibitive $34 million were they to leave in time for next school year, $17 million after that. The AAC’s exit fee is a more modest $10 million but with a 27-month departure notice.
That’s a lot of billable hours.
Which brings us to the most extreme but perhaps most intriguing option.
NCAA bylaws require a conference to have at least eight members — but there is a two-year grace period to get back to that number. Silly as it sounds, the Pac-12 could theoretically operate as a two-team conference in 2024-25 and 2025-26, with Oregon State and Washington State largely making their own schedules.
In other words: Stall.
Who knows where realignment will be by 2026? Maybe the Big 12 will be open to further expansion by then. Maybe Florida State, Clemson and UNC ditch the ACC and that conference has to turn around and add more teams.
ACC expansion wasn't unanimous, but 'you either get busy or you get left behind'
But if nothing else, 2026 is also when the Mountain West’s current deals with Fox and CBS expire, at which point all those schools become free agents.
It’s a lot to figure out, and it has to be figured out fairly quickly if Oregon State and Washington State hope to have opponents lined up by next football season. It may be that simply joining the Mountain West is the most viable option.
But it sure sounds like they’re focused on other options.
“We’re trying to figure out the best path forward while simultaneously pursuing other opportunities,” Murthy said. “Preserving the Pac-12 in some form, we believe, helps continue more than 100 years of sports history and tradition. It’s really important to us.”
(Photo: Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)
