The Pac-12 had an offer from ESPN of $30 million per school in the fall of 2022. The network wanted it all. But the presidents and chancellors wanted more.

“We said we want $50 million per school.”

ESPN's response?

“Goodbye.”

Read: https://t.co/5FvvINZHQ2 pic.twitter.com/E8FS2oRiXe

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) August 11, 2023

Tolkien probably has a great line for the entire saga that is the Pac-12 for the last 20 years.

@#$#$'&

Maybe don't hire your buddy.

I wonder how much his buddy made.


https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/115646/replies/2197255

I wonder who sold these idiots on the idea of 50 mil / year when even back then it was obvious that Disney et al were going to be slashing their budgets like crazy.

Incredible.

So less than the big12, 100% with ESPN, and how long a GOR?

Interesting article by Canzano but a year too late don't you think.

Between he and Wilner they both consistently carried the PR media water for the conference even after SC and UCLA bolted. A real scribe would have been hypervigilant wanting to dig for all the factoids surrounding that topic and the P12's ongoing media rights saga.

I have no doubt that the assertions in his story are correct. It's what happens when you have academics, lacking common sense and business savvy, making decisions w/o any decision tree analysis or thoughtful queries.

Not to mention the poor stewardship and oversight of their last two commissioners.

So why now?

The P12's demise seems rather intentional at this point.

okaydo said:

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Maybe don't hire your buddy.

I wonder how much his buddy made.



https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/115646/replies/2197255

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Ugh. Depressing.

Do these ass hats get paid a buyout if the conference folds?

Never stop finding the juicy info!

okaydo said:

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Maybe don't hire your buddy.

I wonder how much his buddy made.


https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/115646/replies/2197255

---

For those who didn't click on the link, here's the gist: Yormark hired the "big guns" WME and IMG, who told him to get a deal done ASAP.

Kliavkoff, meanwhile, hired his law school buddy's boutique sports media advisory firm, who apparently gave him bad advice.

Remember the saying "no one ever went broke taking a profit"

It's easier to leave money on the table in a deal as a private individual. I followed this advice, and never looked back.

These conferences, the media will bring up the money disparity all the time, so it's harder to stay objective.

Unfortunately the tide went out.

That's a low-ball offer.

No it wasn't...remember..this was a conference without USC and UCLA.

Also, a 50M counter to a 30M offer after losing the LA market schools?

CAL4LIFE said:

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Also, a 50M counter to a 30M offer after losing the LA market schools?

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If the old timers on this board were in the room, I have no doubt they would share GK and the university presidents' delusions on the value of the PAC10

oski003 said:

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That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

BearSD said:

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oski003 said:

---

That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

---

That apple deal was worse than the 30m a year from espn. It required the pac10 to have more subs than Major League Baseball to earn a higher tier otherwise it was in the low 20s. (someone can fact check me on that but that's from my memory on the apple deal)

MinotStateBeav said:

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BearSD said:

---

oski003 said:

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That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

---

That apple deal was worse than the 30m a year from espn. It required the pac10 to have more subs than Major League Baseball to earn a higher tier otherwise it was in the low 20s. (someone can fact check me on that but that's from my memory on the apple deal)

---

The point is that UO and UW were going to say yes to the Apple deal right up until Fox gave the Big Ten new money.

BearSD said:

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oski003 said:

---

That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

---

Yes it seems crazy a year later after everything has played out, but at the time, the Big Ten schools just got $62.5M/yr deals. ESPN absolutely gives a seeming quite low offer at $30M (this is before the Big12 resets the floor at $31.7M) less than 50% of what they'll be paying Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, etc. Pac 12 counters with a big ask, but I think with the assumption, ESPN will end up splitting the difference at landing at $40-45M. ESPN walking away rather right then is odd rather. Big 12 then slides in to take the ESPN offer basically and resets the market for Non Big Ten/SEC conferences.

What Kliavkoff and media advisors didn't get is the limited number of linear TV time slots and the limitations of being on the West Coast. Either the PAC needed to move East more to get into different time zones via expansion, or needed to move quick to grab ESPN/Fox/CBS/NBC air times. Big 12 understood that.

MinotStateBeav said:

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The Pac-12 had an offer from ESPN of $30 million per school in the fall of 2022. The network wanted it all. But the presidents and chancellors wanted more.

“We said we want $50 million per school.”

ESPN's response?

“Goodbye.”

Read: https://t.co/5FvvINZHQ2 pic.twitter.com/E8FS2oRiXe

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) August 11, 2023

Tolkien probably has a great line for the entire saga that is the Pac-12 for the last 20 years.

---

But would that have prevented SC and UCLA from leaving?
I'm a minority opinion probably, but I think the conference became mediocre once they left..

sosheezy said:

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BearSD said:

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oski003 said:

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That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

---

Yes it seems crazy a year later after everything has played out, but at the time, the Big Ten schools just got $62.5M/yr deals. ESPN absolutely gives a seeming quite low offer at $30M (this is before the Big12 resets the floor at $31.7M) less than 50% of what they'll be paying Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, etc. Pac 12 counters with a big ask, but I think with the assumption, ESPN will end up splitting the difference at landing at $40-45M. ESPN walking away rather right then is odd rather. Big 12 then slides in to take the ESPN offer basically and resets the market for Non Big Ten/SEC conferences.

What Kliavkoff and media advisors didn't get is the limited number of linear TV time slots and the limitations of being on the West Coast. Either the PAC needed to move East more to get into different time zones via expansion, or needed to move quick to grab ESPN/Fox/CBS/NBC air times. Big 12 understood that.

---

Exactly. It looks good in retrospect. At the time, it was a low ball offer. But, the Big XII unexpectedly jumped the line, took the offer because they read the market and understood that no one else had any offers to make.

mbBear said:

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MinotStateBeav said:

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The Pac-12 had an offer from ESPN of $30 million per school in the fall of 2022. The network wanted it all. But the presidents and chancellors wanted more.

“We said we want $50 million per school.”

ESPN's response?

“Goodbye.”

Read: https://t.co/5FvvINZHQ2 pic.twitter.com/E8FS2oRiXe

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) August 11, 2023

Tolkien probably has a great line for the entire saga that is the Pac-12 for the last 20 years.

---

But would that have prevented SC and UCLA from leaving?
I'm a minority opinion probably, but I think the conference became mediocre once they left..

---

Fall 2022 was after they left, or I guess announced they would leave.

GK seemed to have thought the Regents could block UCLA, but the waiting until that December decision killed the p12 IMO. Media companies started tightening their belts while GK waited.

P12 was probably worth $40-45 mil per school with SC/UCLA (maybe even that $50 mil), so $30 million w/o LA isn't a terrible offer, depending on terms (# of night games, # of weekday games). GK needed a viable steaming offer on the table last fall to use to push ESPN, or just take the ESPN deal. 50 million w/o USC is insane.

ESPN now gets 4 former Pac 12 teams who can play in the 8pm MT slot for a total of $80 million, not $300 million for the whole p12 conference.

Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

sosheezy said:

---

BearSD said:

---

oski003 said:

---

That's a low-ball offer.

---

Yes. The schools that ended up in the Big Ten and Big 12 got more.

ESPN made a lowball offer, then said adios, then ESPN and Fox used the Big Ten and Big 12 to burn the Pac to the ground. For the last step, Fox gave the Big Ten enough money to get UO and UW to blow up an Apple deal that both were ready to accept.

---

Yes it seems crazy a year later after everything has played out, but at the time, the Big Ten schools just got $62.5M/yr deals. ESPN absolutely gives a seeming quite low offer at $30M (this is before the Big12 resets the floor at $31.7M) less than 50% of what they'll be paying Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, etc. Pac 12 counters with a big ask, but I think with the assumption, ESPN will end up splitting the difference at landing at $40-45M. ESPN walking away rather right then is odd rather. Big 12 then slides in to take the ESPN offer basically and resets the market for Non Big Ten/SEC conferences.

What Kliavkoff and media advisors didn't get is the limited number of linear TV time slots and the limitations of being on the West Coast. Either the PAC needed to move East more to get into different time zones via expansion, or needed to move quick to grab ESPN/Fox/CBS/NBC air times. Big 12 understood that.

---

"What Kliavkoff and media advisors didn't get" ... is everything.

It seems that the Pac not only let Larry Scott stay on several years too long, but then topped it off by replacing him with someone even worse. Kliavkoff appears to be a faker who bluffed his way into a job he had no hope of doing competently.

Hiring incompetent commissioners and giving them too long a leash turned out to be fatal.

Everyone here claimed that the PACx was worth more than the B12 at that time. I blame Buh.

philly1121 said:

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Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

---

So Kliavkoff suicidally overplayed our hand even after losing our two biggest programs and that apparently caused the final destruction of the Pac. I just don't understand how any CEO could have rejected $30 million from ESPN last summer and then wind up with only a streaming deal for less money. Kliavkoff must have known how scanty our remaining options would be after he rejected ESPN. The incompetence is staggering.

I think what we're seeing is ESPN saying "eff you" to the P12 for rejecting their offer. Now, we tried to come back to them hat in hand and they aren't even talking to us.

It seems like this ACC pipe dream isn't going to happen and the B1G doesn't appear to want us. So with all that cash we have, perhaps we pay the exit fees for SDSU and SMU and try and retool the conference.

philly1121 said:

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Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

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Desperation?

CAL4LIFE said:

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Interesting article by Canzano but a year too late don't you think.

Between he and Wilner they both consistently carried the PR media water for the conference even after SC and UCLA bolted. A real scribe would have been hypervigilant wanting to dig for all the factoids surrounding that topic and the P12's ongoing media rights saga.

I have no doubt that the assertions in his story are correct. It's what happens when you have academics, lacking common sense and business savvy, making decisions w/o any decision tree analysis or thoughtful queries.

Not to mention the poor stewardship and oversight of their last two commissioners.

So why now?

The P12's demise seems rather intentional at this point.

---

Nailed it.

movielover said:

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philly1121 said:

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Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

---

Desperation?

---

Try tragicomedy.

Hiring your law school buddy to help you with your media rights negotiations. HIghballing the main linear TV operator in the sport and losing their business. Getting stuck with a bad deal. All the communication lapses throughout. Kliavkoff wears this one. Just an awful effort

— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) August 11, 2023

philly1121 said:

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I think what we're seeing is ESPN saying "eff you" to the P12 for rejecting their offer. Now, we tried to come back to them hat in hand and they aren't even talking to us.

It seems like this ACC pipe dream isn't going to happen and the B1G doesn't appear to want us. So with all that cash we have, perhaps we pay the exit fees for SDSU and SMU and try and retool the conference.

---

ESPN of today isn't even the ESPN of a few months ago.

This is from Daily Cal alum Matt Belloni, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

.@MattBelloni sums up @RobertIger @Disney in one paragraph: pic.twitter.com/RrBti6FVB3

— Edmund Lee 🐿️ 🗞️ (@edmundlee) August 11, 2023

Empty Suit George.

philly1121 said:

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Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

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Now we know where Andrew gets his horse face from.

kal kommie said:

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philly1121 said:

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Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

---

So Kliavkoff suicidally overplayed our hand even after losing our two biggest programs and that apparently caused the final destruction of the Pac. I just don't understand how any CEO could have rejected $30 million from ESPN last summer and then wind up with only a streaming deal for less money. Kliavkoff must have known how scanty our remaining options would be after he rejected ESPN. The incompetence is staggering.

---

Kliavkoff is just the scapegoat, you think he made the decision unilaterally without consulting university presidents? UO and UW probably said no because they were still angling to get into the B1G. Then you have schools like us with pie in the sky dreams about "market potential" and declined because we thought the fair market value is closer to $50M

DoubtfulBear said:

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kal kommie said:

---

philly1121 said:

---

Looks like Cal, Stanford, WSU and OSU have hired a consultant.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-could-oliver-luck-help-save

---

So Kliavkoff suicidally overplayed our hand even after losing our two biggest programs and that apparently caused the final destruction of the Pac. I just don't understand how any CEO could have rejected $30 million from ESPN last summer and then wind up with only a streaming deal for less money. Kliavkoff must have known how scanty our remaining options would be after he rejected ESPN. The incompetence is staggering.

---

Kliavkoff is just the scapegoat, you think he made the decision unilaterally without consulting university presidents? UO and UW probably said no because they were still angling to get into the B1G. Then you have schools like us with pie in the sky dreams about "market potential" and declined because we thought the fair market value is closer to $50M

---

If there was internal dissension about the ESPN offer I would be surprised we didn't hear about it. If, for instance, Kliavkoff and the majority of the remaining 10 wanted to accept the deal but were dissuaded by strong stands from UW and UO, I would think that would leak in the media.

I agree that Kliavkoff is likely to take even more blame than he deserves because we don't have enough visibility on the incompetent decisions of the individual program CEOs but I still think he deserves a huge amount of blame.