Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott addressed the league’s basketball writers this morning at what seems to be the start of a profoundly important year for the conference.
Scott said that the league is beginning to look toward renegotiation of its broadcast packages, which expire at the end of the 2012 seasons. And that makes the next six to 12 months a key time for two massively important decisions: Should the league create its own broadcast network, as the Big 10 has done? And since the footprint of the league is important to any broadcast package, should the league expand?
I’ll have more on both topics here later, and then in tomorrow’s newspaper. However, it seems to be no coincidence that the league’s newly named deputy commissioner has experience with the creation of the Big 10 Network.
Regarding expansion, Scott said he doesn’t know if Pac-10 presidents and chancellors are any more open to the idea than they traditionally have been, but that the discussion of further Big 10 expansion has gotten their attention. In any case, he clearly hasn’t been told that it’s off the table.
“If the Pac-10 is going to think about expanding, now is our window,” Scott said in the conference call. “The reason being if you’re going to consider a reconstruction of the conference, there should be a value proposition associated with that and given that we’re about to have negotiations regarding our media rights, it makes sense that if you’re going to do it, to do it when you can monetize it and get value from it commercially, in terms of greater exposure for your conference. If we’re going to consider this in the foreseeable future, it really is in the next 12 months.”
Scott said there have been no discussions with any potential new schools who might be interesting in joining. However, he said the schools must be academically and culturally compatible with the existing 10 schools. (While Scott named no names, what I have traditionally heard most from around the league is that Colorado and Utah might be the top choices, and that Brigham Young has no chance.)
Scott also said that the league might be willing to alter its traditional Thursday-Saturday basketball schedule to increase the league’s broadcast profile, but that it would have to be done in a way that doesn’t interfere significantly with the academic needs of the student-athletes.
He also said the Pac-10 basketball tournament will continue, even if Fox — which owns the rights to the tournament through 2012 — doesn’t retain those rights.
Now is this just for basketball?
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Utah and Colorado State would be my choice for expansion of the conference. This seems like a great Idea to me.
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Boise St. and Utah would be perfect! Both are competitive in both men’s basketball and football…the two sports that are actually profitable.
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Expansion would be for all sports: just as the Pac-8 became the Pac-10 by adding Arizona and Arizona State, now it would become the Pac-12 by adding two more full-member schools.
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I wouldn’t take Colorado since they are already part of one of the 6 big conferences .
I would like to see Utah and Nevada.
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One has to think about the PAC-10 and know what they are about and full of tradition. If they do this, they are not going to select schools that don’t qualify to fit in the PAC-10. We are a research conference. They will select schools of higher caliber than Nevada, UNLV, Boise St., New Mexico, etc. PAC-10 also likes rivalries. The focus will likely be to maintain that system. Utah and BYU are a natural fit, but due to a no-play Sunday rule, BYU will likely fall off the map and Colorado sits in slot…this decision would be financially based since Denver represents the TV market that the PAC-10 would want to enter…particularly with the network jump starting. My guess is that CU and Utah will be invited and if they say yes, the best conference alignment would be a division by state of West/East or North/South (whoever in the state is the northern most of the two schools). The reason I suggest this divison is that the Oregon and Washington schools need that prime territory of southern California to recruit during the season. Here’s how I’ve drawn it up:
West/North: UW, OSU, Cal, UCLA, ASU, Utah
East/South: WSU, UO, Standford, UA, insert BYU/CU
This keeps the rivalry setup and takes away some of the crying from the Oregon and Washington schools from missing out on the southern California region. It also prevents from creating a super division like we see with the Big 12 South.
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I would split the divisions with keeping the multiple state teams together. Let’s say if CU/ Utah were added..
PAC 10 North-UW/Wazzu/Oregon/Oregon St/Colorado/Utah
PAC 10 South-UCLA/USC/Cal/Stanford/Ariz St/ Arizona
Now even with an expansions, divisions would only be in place for Football correct?
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It is my opinion that the key reason why Colorado and Utah are considered for PAC expansion are…
4) Both universities are large research institutions with sizable endowments
3) Both universities are on par as far as academic standards with the current PAC 10 institutions
2) Both universities have competitive athletic institutions
1) Expanding the PAC 10 to the Denver and Salt Lake City regions open up the #16 and #31 media markets to the “PAC 12″ which will expand the PAC 10 media market by nearly 2.5 million viewers; which in turn will increase the appeal of the “PAC 12″ as it negotiates a new television contract.
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