(05-11-2023 08:46 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  Today's headline:

B12 Fans Now Treat Wilner As Credible Source

Yeah, it's funny how a source is biased until he reports something you like.

(05-12-2023 09:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-12-2023 07:24 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  USC and UCLA took the money and run, while the other PAC 12 members suffer from the mistake.

USC and UCLA are legally responsible for their shares. There was no exit fee, so no liquidated damages clause, nothing was signed stating that USC and UCLA had completed their obligations to the PAC.

Of course, $50M is about $4M per school, so USC and UCLA can cut that check without breaking a sweat

UCLA: We gave that $4m to Cal, they'll pay you.

(05-12-2023 11:26 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-12-2023 10:31 AM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  

(05-12-2023 10:16 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-12-2023 09:25 AM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  

(05-12-2023 09:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  USC and UCLA are legally responsible for their shares. There was no exit fee, so no liquidated damages clause, nothing was signed stating that USC and UCLA had completed their obligations to the PAC.

Of course, $50M is about $4M per school, so USC and UCLA can cut that check without breaking a sweat

No one is paying anything. Comcast is withholding future payments to recoup the losses.

If you try to take the money from USC and UCLA, the repayment plan would need to be changed and that's a can of worms you don't want to open.

Good point, they'll just withhold from this year's payment. After this year, if theres' more owed, Comcast has to sue

I still don't think its in the best interest to sue.

If Comcast sues, the Network could declare bankruptcy. They sell off assets to pay as much debt as possible.

Thinking agressively, then Comcast becomes the proud owner of a bunch of state-of-the-art production trucks and studio facilities and whatnot. NBC Sports Net Bay Area can use that stuff, or drive the trucks to LA or the Midwest to broadcast the Big Ten games on Peacock. Or NBA games if they win that package. Or sell them to Scripps or the CW or whoever.

Comcast gonna get their money.

Quote:If that's not enough Comcast could attempt to sue the Universities but I am pretty sure the Public Universities are protected by sovereign immunity. The University Presidents were clearly left in the dark about the improprieties.

The best case scenario for Comcast is to pressure the Network to add more football games to recoup their damages faster.

Those games are promised to Fox and ESPN, that's a non-starter. Besides, it's not like football games on Pac 12 Network make anybody any money, much less the share of that money that goes to Comcast Xfinity for delivering the channel to their subscribers.

We all keep assuming that they will, but that will really depend upon how much the PACN is supposed to pay out over the next couple of years, and also on the Pac's willingness to just say "our bad" rather than "this is your mistake and we were under no obligation to let you know that you were overpaying us millions of dollars per year". They might even say "we felt like you were actually underpaying us, so here's a lawsuit with plenty of discovery so that we can find out how much you were underpaying us".

It's possible Comcast gets the full $50m, it's possible more is discovered and they recoup that, too, but it's also possible that Comcast gets 0.

Comcast Mess - By JON WILNER

The Comcast overpayment fiasco is expected to carry a total wallop of more than 70M more 20M more then the 50M first reported. The hit will be felt in conference distributions to the campuses across the two fiscal years:

— For FY2023, sources on multiple campuses expect a $3.5 million reduction compared to what was originally forecast by the conference.
— For FY2024, the reduction is expected to be $2.2 million compared to prior forecasts.

Unexpected expenses surfaced at the conference level during FY2023 in two other areas:

— Exiting San Francisco this summer. The lease on Third Street called for the office space to be restored to its original state, according to sources, leaving the conference to spend millions in construction costs. ($10M)

— Relocation of the Pac-12 Networks production studio. The cost of the new office space in San Ramon exceeded initial projections because of supply-chain issues and a tight deadline to have the 42,000-square foot facility ready by July.

“It’s going to be painful,” said a source with direct knowledge of the projected distributions.

Link
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/06/06/p...ar-behind/

(05-11-2023 05:39 PM)otown Wrote:  Just curious, with UCLA and USC leaving....or if any other school leaves, do they have to pay back their share over the overpayment?

Yes, they have to pay. USC and UCLA are also having about $2.7M deducted from distributions this (just completed) year and also next year, like every other Pac-12 school, to refund $70M to Comcast.

Kliavkoff at least is paying it up front now, so it won't be an issue in the next media contract.

(05-11-2023 04:32 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(05-11-2023 03:57 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  Blames the Presidents for the organization structure and a bunch of stuff. Says the Universities should pay for it and not impact the Athletic Departments.

Also, $50 Million is apparently the low ball estimate, there might be more.

LOL at Wilner trying to curry favor with the Pac-12 Athletic Directors by taking sides in an internal administrative mess.

What's next? A diatribe on why athletic departments shouldn't have to reimburse the university's general fund for scholarships?

Wilner must be getting frustrated by his information roadblock with university presidents and so he's hoping a little quid pro quo with the AD's for this advocacy piece will help his cause.

Truth is Pac-12 athletic directors are also to blame for the conference's sad state since any good AD would've pushed back against his or her president for supporting Larry Scott's agenda to scale back emphasis and spending on football and men's basketball in favor of a more egalitarian approach that benefited non-revenue sports (like Scott's beloved tennis).

Even a milquetoast like Wilner would ackowledge in hindsight that was a terrible mistake

Contrast this with the SEC and B1G. We make the money with football, then invest it into everything else. Fast forward 10 years and the SEC and B1G will be dominant in most non-revenue sports. We might be better in baseball, the B1G has hockey, but overall, we'll both have elite programs in nearly every sport at every school. The Pac has consistently starved their revenue sports of resources for over a decade, and they finally pushed out their 2 biggest earners, with potential for more to head for the exits after them.

It's not the Presidents, it's not just the ADs, it's all of them and most of the people at the Conference office (who got hired by the Presidents). As for the Comcast deal, who cares if it's $50m or $75m? They might not even have an agreement with Comcast in a couple of years. Comcast might underpay them next year for whatever number they claim they were underpaid, or maybe they wait for the Pac to pay them back, but there's a decent chance either way that it ends up in the courts. It will be a 1 time charge of a few million bucks per school in the end. The issue with it is just the timing. If they'd sorted it out 4 or 5 years ago then it would have been handled before the current crisis, but now it's just a force multiplier that exacerbates the already dangerous situation.

(06-08-2023 12:22 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(05-11-2023 05:39 PM)otown Wrote:  Just curious, with UCLA and USC leaving....or if any other school leaves, do they have to pay back their share over the overpayment?

Yes, they have to pay. USC and UCLA are also having about $2.7M deducted from distributions this (just completed) year and also next year, like every other Pac-12 school, to refund $70M to Comcast.

Kliavkoff at least is paying it up front now, so it won't be an issue in the next media contract.

That's not really his choice--Comcast is withholding the money from what they'd otherwise be paying Pac 12 networks for 2022-23 and 2023-24. Or do we have a source that actual payments are going from Pac-12 HQ to Comcasts?