And Utah and ASU are reaching out to say they aren’t going to the Big 12. So maybe the four corners talk is overblown?
Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan set the record straight on the Pac-12 media rights negotiations and why he chose to speak up.
kslsports.com
If you look at what they are saying, they want to stay together if the terms are right. That isn’t new. And the AZ president goes on to state that AZ would fit fine with the Big 12. He’s hedging.
Nothing has really changed in 6 months; the PAC 12 still has no media deal. The best number they’ve gotten so far is $22 million per school from ESPN and Amazon. That number is before production costs of the streaming portion, which is estimated at $5-7 million per school. So the PAC 12 net per school current sits at $15-17 million.
The Big 12 has a mostly linear deal with Fox and ESPN, at $31.7 million per school, including production costs.
The PAC is hoping for some Hail Mary to get them to $31.7 million like the Big 12. That’s not going to happen. And even if it did, you can deduct $5-7 million for production costs of the streaming piece, which will be more than half of the deal. ESPN is only offering 1 game per week.
So…the PAC presidents are patiently waiting for the final deal. And waiting. And waiting. The problem is, there’s no better deal to be had, as all of the networks have a full inventory of games now. That’s why things have gone silent.
If and when the PAC gets a “best and final” deal…
- how much less, net, will it be compared to the Big 12? Unless something really weird happens, it will be $5 million less per year minimum, and likely $10 million less.
- more importantly, how much of the content will be streaming? Barring another network getting back into the bidding (highly unlikely), 50-75% of PAC games will be streaming. I guarantee you that the PAC presidents and ADs aren’t going to go for that, and the AZ president said as much.
- finally, even by some miracle the deal was “as good” as the Big 12, will Oregon and Washington sign a fresh new GOR for 5 or 6 years? Nope.
Brett Yormark is patiently waiting. Leadership matters.