Pac 12 to expand into Southern California and Texas?

[BYU_Fan]

@DataUte

These ‘super conferences’ of 16 will soon learn the challenge that the WAC found and that had some regionality to it. A 4 time zone Big 12 and a coast to coast B1G just doesn’t seem like it can last for all sports unless they create sub-conf. Football with 6 away games is doable. Basketball, a 2 team road swing semi-ok. Other sports? Yikes

I just think the PAC will be able to hold on amd mid-2030s there will be another re-alignment. Or by then we’ll have a breakway of another division of football - Division 0, or Division $upermoney

I agree the 16 team bloated conferences will eventually face the hardship of appeasing all members of the conference. Especially when the strength of each member is vastly different and the geographic spread makes regional rivalries fade away.

[BYU_Fan]

@Ma-ake

Media deals have to look at longer term trends, but given the date range - 2012-21 - this understates where Utah is now, IMO. The early years were when we just couldn’t seem to beat Mariota & the Chris Peterson Dawgs, for example.

Love to see the data for the past 5 years. I’m not saying our position is strong enough to keep us at the top of the PAC in a downturn, but we’ve built up.

Utah’s brand has improved significantly over the past 5 years, it has been awesome to watch!

[BYU_Fan]

@superdoo

…g games with big names. But what about the rest of the games? This chart is kind of fascinating and really illustrates the value of the Utah brand (or rather that it is rising - it is small compared to the big names). But think about that, they ARE climbing up to the brand and name recognition of Oregon, Washington, Florida St, etc.Also, more and more measurable stats out there show that the lie BYU fans commonly tell, that they have this huge fanbase out there simply isn’t true.And the bigger point illustrated in this graph is that PAC has a better product than both the ACC and the Big12 (by a long shot) as it currently stands. At the end of the day, it is about business and the TV deals will go by the numbers. They don’t sign multi-billion dollar contracts without doing some basic math.

That data set may have some serious bias. . .If Oregon State is beating out Utah, Clemson, Virginia, Baylor etc. . . Heck it even puts Baylor below all the current Big12 teams, which is not true either. I would say the data set might be true data, but it doesn’t paint a picture of true value outside of Oregon/Washington/FSU all at the top.

[superdoo]

Go read what it is about again. And it is based off hard numbers so it may hurt your feelings, but that’s okay. It is games on secondary networks, FS1, ESPN2, etc. It might be YOU that has some serious bias. It never was intended to paint a picture of ‘true value’.

But regardless of that, data that aggregates it all, produced by the NCAA itself, shows that BYU has a smaller fanbase and viewership than Utah. See above.

[sweetgrass]

If you are intrigued by sports media deals, PAC12 expansion, etc. I would recommend Canzano and Wilners podcast. This last podcast they had the individual who negotiated the last PAC12 media deal with Fox (retired Fox Sports Network President Bob Thompson). They’ve also had the new Big XII commissioner and others as guests. It’s always a good listen and both have solid connections to the conference.

[BYUUtah]

This is one metric in a team valuation formula. But this chart indicates a much bigger issue than the utah byu rivalry - and that’s washington and oregon being outliers in the pac 12 (and other metrics) and that’s the heart of the issue. Big teams not wanting to subsidize middle and smaller teams if it’s unnecessary.

In say the english premier league there’s not an easy exit for the top teams to find their value and there’s (also more of an egalitarian sense among english football fans that it left a really bad taste in most people’s mouths when they tried to do it anyway)

With college football there’s just such an obvious path now to capturing an individual team’s value.

Is there enough value that could be created outside of the P2 to produce a true third, stable Power conference? It seems extremely unlikely

[Ma-ake]

@sweetgrass

If you are intrigued by sports media deals, PAC12 expansion, etc. I would recommend Canzano and Wilners podcast. This last podcast they had the individual who negotiated the last PAC12 media deal with Fox (retired Fox Sports Network President Bob Thompson). They’ve also had the new Big XII commissioner and others as guests. It’s always a good listen and both have solid connections to the conference.

Second that. It’s one thing to read Canzano quoting Bob Thompson about things, it’s another to listen to him elaborate on all the factors that need to be balanced, while not trying to buffalo anyone or position something. He has a lot going on himself, has a consulting firm and has attorneys guiding him on topics to stay away from, accordingly. Still remarkably informative and insightful.

Thompson admitting that negotiation fatigue sometimes happens and giving space to the topic is sometimes needed, and the attorneys & senior leadership of these media companies always have a lot of other things going on at the same time… like Wilner said, “I feel like I’m a smarter person after listening to Bob Thompson”.

I mean, we all know Dick Harmon is a hack. But listening to Canzano, Wilner & Thompson talking about media rights, expansion, negotiations and where the landscape is moving on linear vs streaming… it reveals the D-News may have picked up Harmon as a reject from the old TV show “HeeHaw”.

[BamaFanNKY]

@superdoo

But, they’ve been winning and in a David and Goliath fashion. If they can get into the CFP and turn some heads there… that will make the biggest difference. It’s also been kind of cool to see Utah gear starting to show up on various professional athletes and celebrities - almost unimaginable even 15 years ago.

This next year should be interesting for Utah. They were around the 33 ranked talent composite for teams according to 247sports. They bring back some players which should help but even more they recruited this past class a top-25 recruiting class (21). 2022 and 2021 it was 34 as 31 was 2020. If Utah can somehow stay around 21 or even jump in the top 15 you will see them make waves in the playoff.

Talent=Results.

[Uteanooga]

@BamaFanNKY

To be fair, three SEC schools have won a title (the same amount who made the playoffs). Two Pac 12 schools made the playoffs but failed to advance to the Final. I agree budgets matter but recruiting (both for players on the team and students in classes) is going to be key for Utah to get over the hump more than TV money. Getting more publicity of the games is more valuable for recruiting and enrollment than the payout, IMHO.

Sure, Alabama’s payout is good but the enrollment increase from winning has been bigger for the university. They are at their largest enrollment this year for Minority students, out-of-state students and international students.

Can’t argue with any of this. I didn’t say that we should expect Utah to win the playoffs- just that Utah should consistently threaten to be in the playoffs. Obviously we have seen Utah appear in the Rose Bowl twice only to be trounced by B1G teams that were very good but not elite.

This is not to say that we can not enjoy and be proud of our program. Only one team will win the playoffs each year. Part of the trick is to learn to enjoy the journey. Utah’s journey has been fantastic and will continue to be- even if they don’t produce a national championship in the next decade.

[SkinyUte]

@superdoo

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Some surprises from that list (for me, anyways)

• How is West Virginia so high?
• We’re quite a bit higher than Clemson (isn’t their whole thing that “we carry the conference”?)
• Is that Oregon State right ahead of us? Just people tuning in accidentally thinking they’re watching Oregon?
• Zoobs not nearly the draw they think they are (ok, that one’s not particularly surprising)

[Greginslc]

As a student from the 1980’s, if anyone back then would’ve said Utah Football would accomplish the things it has since that time, I would’ve declared it pure crazy talk. OK, many others would have said the same thing. Back then we started the season with “Let’s win the WAC.” Two game into the season and the tune changed to “Let’s win to .500.” Usually by the fifth game of the season we had relegated our football goal to simply “Screw the season, let’s beat BYU.” Now we focus on winning the PAC 12 and beating U$C, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and ASU every season. It’s a long way from playing inProvo and Laramie every other season.

I have to agree, if you don’t enjoy the ride you are just setting yourself up for a fall full of lots of disappointment. After reading the Canzano article and other actual PAC 12 press insiders, things will be just fine in the near term. I hope we can get the three-peat this season. One thing for sure, the trip to that place is going to be a ride worth getting on for.

[LuckyUte]

@Greginslc

Two game into the season and the tune changed to “Let’s win to .500.” Usually by the fifth game of the season we had relegated our football goal to simply “Screw the season, let’s beat BYU.”

Don’t forget the always popular 1980’s refrain of, “at least we have basketball”.