bullet
Legend
Posts: 66,785
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation: 3312
I Root For: Texas, UK, UGA
Location:
|
RE: Staples: Now’s the time, Big 12, to go after the Pac-12’s biggest and best
(03-05-2020 04:18 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (03-05-2020 04:01 PM)bullet Wrote: (03-05-2020 09:20 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (03-05-2020 08:58 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote: Here's the core issue: the Pac-12 knows better than anyone how tenuous the relationships are in the Big 12 despite all of the money.
Some of the relationships are tenuous, but some are not. The relations among the Texas schools are pretty solid, and between the Texas schools and the Oklahoma schools. What is tenuous are the true SWC - Big 8 fault lines, which is basically the Kansas schools and Iowa State. And they know what they are without the Texas schools. So in a shell, I think the Big 12 is more solid than you think.
But about the PAC, I agree. I think those who look at TV ratings and see the PAC getting a big haircut in its 2024 deal are in for a big surprise, as all the evidence suggests that the PAC will get paid at a P5 level. And as I've noted, the PACN situation is fixable, they haven't tied themselves in for any time with it at all, they could change course on that.
IOW's, I don't see either the Big 12 or PAC as being unstable, and do not anticipate either raiding the other in 2024/2025.
All that said, by 2024 we might all be dead from the coronavirus. The reality is that right now, the PAC is suffering revenue-wise because of the Scott PACN fumble, and that is where these drumbeats are coming from. A big danger to the PAC is that some very major college properties - the B1G's tier one rights, and the SEC's game of the week package - both come to market right before the PAC's rights in 2024, and those deals could suck the big money Scott and the PAC are banking on out of the room. Scott seems all-in on the "just wait for 2024" strategy, not surprising since it is his baby, and so he would likely have to go for the PAC to move sooner on a deal, which might be wise. Scott has to go in any event, LOL.
The SEC renegotiating Tier I early was a good strategic move. And it could make things more difficult for the Pac 12 and Big 12. ESPN has added more SEC content. Fox and ESPN will be bidding on Big 10 and only then will they get to the Pac 12 and Big 12. One of the two could conceivably have little room for content from the Pac 12 and/or Big 12. So with one less bidder, that means less money.
Yes, the bottom line is that recent events have highlighted disparities among the P5. The B1G and SEC are clearly the most valuable conferences. The B1G will be making a bit more than the SEC, but that's because Delaney was smarter than Slive, not because of inherently better properties. But they will be in the same ballpark, and it is a sure thing that their rights packages that come up in 2023 will draw big dollars.
The ACC, Big 12, and PAC are all pursuing strategies to stay in somewhat in range. The ACC doesn't have the uncertainty that the PAC and Big 12 have, because for better or worse, they are all-in with ESPN and now have the ACCN up and running. They will rise or fall based on how much additional money the ACCN brings in, and we should start to get some information on that pretty soon. ACC fans seem to sense optimism about this, but that is based on household penetration, which is clearly good, not carriage rates, which we haven't heard much about. The SECN makes a lot of money not just because it's in a lot of households, but because ESPN was able to negotiate high rates for it.
The PAC and Big 12 have big deals coming up in 2024/2025, but as you say, there are lots of variables in play, with the money-sucking nature of the B1G and SEC deals maybe hurting them. OTOH, they may each get a great deal. We shall see, but that's where the real uncertainty lies.
The money will be there if the ratings are there, no matter how much they pay the SEC and B$G. The issue is whether they have time slots. There are really only 3 time slots a day on each network. ABC doesn't run college football all day, so that's 8 Saturday slots between ABC/ESPN and ESPN2. The other ESPN networks have much lower coverage and viewership so it is less valuable to put games there. FS2 hardly gets any viewers and Fox has baseball and other things. So Fox only has 4 to 5 slots between Fox and FS1 on Saturdays. ESPN now has the entire ACC and SEC lineup. That's a lot of inventory.
|
|