Back in February and March, I started this series on the changing conference alignments in college sports. You can previous takes on the Mountain West, Big 12, and Big Ten by clicking the conference names.
Today, we restart by looking at the Pac-12, a league aggressively trying to change its lot in the college sports economic system. Membership changed with the addition of Colorado and Utah though the league aimed much higher attempting to break the Big 12 into pieces by adding the Oklahoma schools, the three public Texas schools along with Colorado only being denied by ESPN and Fox at the last minute.
Economics
The addition of Utah and Colorado doesn't help matters much except in two areas. First is the championship game in football. Just for this season, Fox paid $25 million for the championship game. The other is additional inventory of games. Colorado and Utah don't bring much value on their own right now, but having more games on the schedule in the league means more games to televise. Even keeping the per game amount the same grows the pie quite a bit.
In addition, the Pac-12 has hit the open market for negotiations at the right time. The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all recently signed new contracts. This makes the Pac-12 the last big league to sign for quite awhile and is currently driving suitors all of the place way up in price lest they be locked out. Heck, ESPN appears to be on the outs at this point with NBC/Versus and Fox/FX/FSN the probable leaders. In addition, the league is looking to form a new network like the Big Ten Network. While it likely won't be as wildly successful as the Big Ten Network, it is likely going to be much better at turning a profit and exposing the rest of the country to Pac-12 sports than The Mtn., the Mountain West's feeble attempt at a network has been.
Football Winners and Losers
Winners – Everyone except the California schools
The Northwest schools are winner because the divisional alignment kept them in California and rid them of the Los Angeles schools in divisional play. Considering it is rare when both LA schools are terrible, this is a good thing. Also being rid of sleeping giant Arizona St. is a plus. The newcomers are winners because they could easily have ended up in the north division with the Northwest schools and be pretty well locked out of California recruiting wise. You don't have to remind Colorado what that can do after their experience being locked out of Texas in the Big 12. As for the Arizona schools, they win by having the California schools in split divisions and not all together with them in one division. Had that happened, they were looking at being second class divisional citizens to the Los Angeles and Bay Area schools.
Losers – The California schools
Being split up and therefore allowing the Northwest schools and the new schools to keep their recruiting footholds in state hurts the California schools (though it is better for the league long-term). In addition, having to play against all the other California schools in cross-divisional play hurts matters more. Generally, the four California schools are going to be pretty good. The sacrifice being made for that is less games against the Northwest schools for the Los Angeles schools and less against the Arizonas and new schools for the Bay Area schools. At least competitively, I think I would rather play the unknown from the other region instead of the extra in-state game (unless Oregon is the team drawn).
Basketball Winners and Losers
Winners – Utah, Bubble Teams
Utah now gets out of mid-majordom and has a chance to really build something knowing a solid year will always end in an at-large bid. Bubble teams also get a jump because Utah has been down and Colorado, last season notwithstanding, generally stinks, meaning that there are more chances to rack up wins and less games against the UCLA's and Arizona's at the top of the league.
Losers – UCLA, Arizona, top of the league
Welcome to RPI drain hell, even more so than this league had been the last couple of seasons. Colorado and Utah aren't going to help the power rating and it will hurt seeding for those teams that do get into the tournament.
Ultimate Winners and Losers
Utah is the big winner here. The Utes got the promotion to Power conference status needed to truly be a major player in football and basketball. Everything is now in place for Utah to be a true player over the coming years.
The other big winner here is Colorado. The Buffs finally got away from Texas and, considering the Big 12 also lost Nebraska, Colorado was going to be living a rival-less existence there. For Colorado’s cash-strapped athletic department, being away from Texas is better than had they been in the Pac-16 with them.
The biggest losers here are nobody. Everybody ultimately wins here because of the extra revenue that will come in. Note I was stretching greatly to find teams hurt in the football and basketball sections. That's because this is going to help everybody on some level. None of the existing Pac-10 teams are going to get as much help as the new members, but they certainly won't lose anything.
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