I read a post about the latest wide receiver commitment because, unlike others, it had an amazing 34 posts. I kept reading to find out why. It's because the post discussion changes and ends by answering the question we all never ask
"How did We Get Here?"
It should have its own thread, and I'll start with the best post by Calumnus:
The opportunity was AFTER UCLA and USC announced their departures, giving 1 year notice. The entire year before the PAC-10 broke up. Within a week of USC's and UCLA's announcement there were published reports that UW and Oregon were lobbying the Big-10 for admission despite the fact they were told their rivals WSU and OSU were not wanted.
The speculation was that the Big-10 would take at least two more Pac schools to ease USC and UCLA's travel burden and create a West Coast pod. The published rumor was that USC was very opposed to Oregon and wanted Cal and Stanford. Remember when the PAC-12 split into North and South? USC and UCLA pushed to have their annual games with Cal and Stanford continue. The annual "Weekender" trip to the Bay Area was a long tradition they wanted to retain.
The President of the Big-10 repeatedly mentioned Cal and Stanford as schools that fit the Big 10 profile. Clearly the Big-10 presidents preferred Cal and Stanford for the academic prestige. Plus the Bay Area is the next big West Coast market after LA, much bigger than Seattle or Portland and has much better air connections to the Midwest.
However, when USC and UCLA announced their departure, Carol Christ came out against it, saying the travel would be bad for student athletes, "particularly female athletes" (invoking TitleIX). She enlisted California governor Gavin Newsome to oppose it. Kliavkoff thought he could save the Pac-12 if he could keep UCLA and the LA market and add San Diego State and Carol Christ bought into that strategy 100%. She even brought Kliavkoff to the UC Regents meetings trying to block UCLA from leaving. Calimony was Plan B.
The real architect of USC and UCLA's departure to the Big-10 was Fox Sports President Mark Silverman a UCLA grad (Michigan MBA) who earlier in his career at Fox Sports created the Big 10 Network. He lives 10 minutes from UCLA's campus, has floor seats at Pauley Pavilion attends all their football games and is a major donor. My friends at UCLA say he was majorly pissed at Cal for trying to block UCLA at the Regents and getting the governor involved. Majorly pissed.
When Pac-10 negations with Fox and ESPN fell through and Kliavkoff started looking at streaming deals most of the other schools clearly started looking at or negotiating other options even while giving lip service to the PAC-10 so Kliavkoff could get the best alternative offer possible. Carol Christ later acknowledged that these other schools lied to her and had been making other deals which was shocking to her. Colorado announced their departure to the Big-12 ahead of tge meeting. Christ and Knowlton were all -in with Kliavkoff. When the fateful day arrived it was reported that three schools were prepared to sign Kliavkoff's streaming deal: WSU, OSU and Cal.
It was only after the Pac-12 collapsed and Oregon and UW were in the Big-10 that Christ and Knowlton sought admission to the Big-10. The report was that the Big-10 presidents wanted us, but Fox Sports (UCLA alum Silverman) flatly refused pay anything for us. The Big-10 presidents would have to pay us from their own earnings and they could not justify that.
Knowlton set up a meeting with the Mountain West in Colorado Springs. Christ and Knowlton considered shutting down the program. It was only through the efforts of Stanford, Notre Dame with the full support of ESPN that we got a partial share of the money ESPN is paying for our rights in the ACC.
Again, if Christ and Knowlton had, instead of trying to block UCLA, did what UW and Oregon did, lobbied the Big-10, but also flew down to LA to meet with UCLA, USC and Fox Sports, I am very confident we would be in the Big-10 today. Probably not at full share immediately, but we would have a deal similar to what UW and Oregon got. I am pretty confident, but we will never know.
Given the incompetence of Christ and Knowlton in the high stakes, cut throat world of realignment and essentially professional sports, we are very lucky we got an invite to the ACC, but we need to start acting smart and seizing our opportunities NOW. Bringing in Ron was the only move in the right direction I have seen so far, though the way we did it essentially wasted another year that we don't have to waste for "evaluation."
(Others may continue after this)
"How did We Get Here?"
It should have its own thread, and I'll start with the best post by Calumnus:
The opportunity was AFTER UCLA and USC announced their departures, giving 1 year notice. The entire year before the PAC-10 broke up. Within a week of USC's and UCLA's announcement there were published reports that UW and Oregon were lobbying the Big-10 for admission despite the fact they were told their rivals WSU and OSU were not wanted.
The speculation was that the Big-10 would take at least two more Pac schools to ease USC and UCLA's travel burden and create a West Coast pod. The published rumor was that USC was very opposed to Oregon and wanted Cal and Stanford. Remember when the PAC-12 split into North and South? USC and UCLA pushed to have their annual games with Cal and Stanford continue. The annual "Weekender" trip to the Bay Area was a long tradition they wanted to retain.
The President of the Big-10 repeatedly mentioned Cal and Stanford as schools that fit the Big 10 profile. Clearly the Big-10 presidents preferred Cal and Stanford for the academic prestige. Plus the Bay Area is the next big West Coast market after LA, much bigger than Seattle or Portland and has much better air connections to the Midwest.
However, when USC and UCLA announced their departure, Carol Christ came out against it, saying the travel would be bad for student athletes, "particularly female athletes" (invoking TitleIX). She enlisted California governor Gavin Newsome to oppose it. Kliavkoff thought he could save the Pac-12 if he could keep UCLA and the LA market and add San Diego State and Carol Christ bought into that strategy 100%. She even brought Kliavkoff to the UC Regents meetings trying to block UCLA from leaving. Calimony was Plan B.
The real architect of USC and UCLA's departure to the Big-10 was Fox Sports President Mark Silverman a UCLA grad (Michigan MBA) who earlier in his career at Fox Sports created the Big 10 Network. He lives 10 minutes from UCLA's campus, has floor seats at Pauley Pavilion attends all their football games and is a major donor. My friends at UCLA say he was majorly pissed at Cal for trying to block UCLA at the Regents and getting the governor involved. Majorly pissed.
When Pac-10 negations with Fox and ESPN fell through and Kliavkoff started looking at streaming deals most of the other schools clearly started looking at or negotiating other options even while giving lip service to the PAC-10 so Kliavkoff could get the best alternative offer possible. Carol Christ later acknowledged that these other schools lied to her and had been making other deals which was shocking to her. Colorado announced their departure to the Big-12 ahead of tge meeting. Christ and Knowlton were all -in with Kliavkoff. When the fateful day arrived it was reported that three schools were prepared to sign Kliavkoff's streaming deal: WSU, OSU and Cal.
It was only after the Pac-12 collapsed and Oregon and UW were in the Big-10 that Christ and Knowlton sought admission to the Big-10. The report was that the Big-10 presidents wanted us, but Fox Sports (UCLA alum Silverman) flatly refused pay anything for us. The Big-10 presidents would have to pay us from their own earnings and they could not justify that.
Knowlton set up a meeting with the Mountain West in Colorado Springs. Christ and Knowlton considered shutting down the program. It was only through the efforts of Stanford, Notre Dame with the full support of ESPN that we got a partial share of the money ESPN is paying for our rights in the ACC.
Again, if Christ and Knowlton had, instead of trying to block UCLA, did what UW and Oregon did, lobbied the Big-10, but also flew down to LA to meet with UCLA, USC and Fox Sports, I am very confident we would be in the Big-10 today. Probably not at full share immediately, but we would have a deal similar to what UW and Oregon got. I am pretty confident, but we will never know.
Given the incompetence of Christ and Knowlton in the high stakes, cut throat world of realignment and essentially professional sports, we are very lucky we got an invite to the ACC, but we need to start acting smart and seizing our opportunities NOW. Bringing in Ron was the only move in the right direction I have seen so far, though the way we did it essentially wasted another year that we don't have to waste for "evaluation."
(Others may continue after this)
