PAC-12 status and media rights deal

[4th&long]

https://frontofficesports.com/the-mount ... ew-pac-12/

>> Officials at Oregon State and Washington State have expressed their desire to rebuild the existing Pac-12. But a version of the conference could still exist in the future even if that effort fails.

Within the Mountain West, the most commonly discussed idea is a reverse merger with Oregon State and Washington State, one source told Front Office Sports. Many in the Mountain West are in favor of renaming the conference the “Pac-12.”<<

Pac-12 may get that merger

[MGB01]

One could easily draw the conclusion that Kliavkoff was hired (remember, around the same time Texas and Oklahoma took off for the SEC) to facilitate the end of the Pac 12. Would explain his actions/non-actions as well as the weak reporting--from the refusal to call out certain administrators/presidents, which btw make up the mythical P12 CEO Group that conveniently has gone nameless so far, up to John Canzano's embarrassing U-turn back towards Larry Scott. And why in the hell would Stanford and Cal, both headed to a weak conference essentially being run by a football independent, be eager to join the other eight and take everything that they've by all rights forfeited knowing this could/will easily happen to them in five years?

If Kliavkoff doesn't enforce any of this, the above is a whole lot closer to being true. Hey Trojans Wire, you wanna do some GD journalism or you just want to be Colin Cowherd?

[4th&long]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... re-merger/

>> Oregon State and Washington State are engaging with the Mountain West on a potential scheduling partnership, sources close to the negotiations confirm to CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. The two remaining schools in the Pac-12 Conference have engaged with the MWC on everything from a long-term partnership to even a merger far down the line.

"That's the preference. It's not a done deal," one of the sources told Dodd. <<

Or the Pac-2 could poach teams from the MW and maybe a couple others in Texas - say UTSA and Texas St - they need 8 by 2026 to meet NCAA rules. Fold, Merge or Poach?

[MGB01]

Lotta teams who were set to play Army need opponents with them going AAC.

Fitting, since OSU, who could still get to Vegas, and WSU are now effectively reduced to the UConn and UMass of the west.

[4th&long]

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/0 ... ment-49754

>> Oregon State, Washington State, close to deal with The CWThe two schools remaining in the “Pac-12” after this season — Oregon State and Washington State — are close to striking a media rights deal with Nexstar’s CW to carry football home games next season, according to reporter John Canzano.
The 13-game package would be produced by the Pac-12 Network, which will continue to exist in some form. Ten of the current Pac-12 schools are departing after this season.Since its purchase by Nexstar in late 2022, CW (the “The” has been dropped) has established a modest sports division that includes rights to ACC football and basketball, LIV Golf and — starting next season — NASCAR Xfinity Series races.  <<

Gotta give Oregon St and Wash St credit not giving up and making head way.  A pretty nice CFP $ deal, a scheduling agreement with the MW, finalized deal with the 10 schools that left for $65mm and now a potential CW deal.  

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ng-battle/

Keeping an eye on CW if UFL expands. 

[MGB01]

Missed opportunity by ESPN to get MWC teams back on their net for the first time since 2019. Not only that, they could have had the Civil War (Corvallis this year), which would have also given them a B1G team, as would next year's Apple Cup/Patrick Chun Bowl.

[FootballFan]

Keeping an eye on CW if UFL expands. 

 

 

 

Going by some new trademarks, the new cities could be Canton and Nashville.

https://uflboard.com/xfl-board/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5253&p=42032#p42032

[MGB01]

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2024/05/pac-12 ... oadcast-cw

And so it ends, the bulk of WSU/OSU home games will air on CW, with two non cons (Civil War, WSU vs TT) headed to FOX/FS1. Two are set to be doubleheaders, so "Pac 2 after dark" will still be a thing, sorta.

As I said a while back, big mistake by ESPN, chance to not only get MW teams back for the first time since 2019 but the three power OOC games as well, especially as the only two B1G teams they'll have this year are USC and UCLA vs LSU they would have doubled that getting Oregon and Purdue vs OSU.