Larry Scott: All Pac-12 Sports on P12N & Pac-16...someday?

[PAC MAN]

http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/pac-12-commissioner-larry-scott-envisions-putting-sports-exclusively-on-pac-12-network.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

It seems like the Pac-16 talk is bubbling up again.

 

Having all Pac-12 sports on the P12N is intriguing to me...as long as I can watch it.  I would have no problems taking the $25 I spend on Sling TV monthly and give it to the P12N so I can watch my Buffs.

 

Is Larry Scott crazy or brilliant?

 

 

 

 

[Bruininthebay]

The article you link interprets Larry Scott's statements.  Scott said "“I think it’s likely you’ll see more expansion, more consolidation (of conferences) over time. Don’t know when that is". This sentence is not in the first person or in the 'royal we' third person.  

The author's interpretation that Larry Scott just said there will be four power conferences with sixteen teams each is a YYUUGGEE stretch. That's not reading between the lines, it's writing between the lines!  

 

If you wanted to say Larry Scott thinks Texas is leaving the Big 12 eventually then I think you are reading between the lines fairly and it is surprising a Power Five conference commissioner has said as much.

What Scott was trying to do is establish that the Pac 12 has an over the top solution they can sublicense.  Theoretically this would mean networks can pay for each broadcast in open bidding rather than in a semi-exclusive contract for fifteen years and there would also be a way Pac 12 fans can just get the Pac 12 network itself over the top.  Hopefully it means Saturday games and few start times at 7 PM.

 

I think ESPN will hedge by signing an exclusive deal with the Mountain West, to give ESPN a western time zone league that will do mid week and 7 PM start times to pair with their existing deals with MAC,Texas, SEC and ACC.  The Group of 5 FBS leagues the American, the MWC and the Sunbelt renegotiate with ESPN in 2019-20.  ESPN is probably not re-upping with the American or the Sun Belt because they geographically overlap with the SEC and ACC but those deals were signed before either the SEC network or ACC network were created. 

If ESPN is taking the Pac 12 network seriously as a competitor they would probably consider signing the MW because tv ratings for ESPN broadcasts of those games are not that much lower than Pac 12 games and the cost of licensing the fees are currently a whole lot lower.

Obviously this isn't happening any time soon, but it is fun to speculate.

[PAC MAN]

I have posted quite a few times very good reasons why the TX and OK schools wouldn't make the move west.