Pac 12... 11... 10... 9... 8... 7...6...5...4... POOF!

My prediction.....

Saudi's / Equity conglomerate will invest in a new Western Conference. They will not only help buy out some schools but also help with media pkg. Both old p12 network and some Apple/streaming companies.

The league will consist of the following:

Oregon State
Washington State
Boise State
Fresno State
Colorado State
San Diego State
Arizona State
Utah State
San Jose State
Air Force
Nevada
Wyoming
New Mexico
UNLV

Die hard regional sports....

 

Also oregon side stepped bow much they got. Tossed out 50 million after rambling but I don’t believe them.

 

Well, even that, IMO, doesn't go deep enough. Fans make football by far the most lucrative sport. No matter how much you charge a Penn State fan, no matter the quality of the product on the field, you're going to average more than 100K fans at its home games. Charge exorbitant ticket and parking prices for a .500 team? Doesn't matter. And Penn State's not nearly as football crazy or with as many fans and boosters willing to throw money into the football program as places like Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Georgia. Texas and Alabama couple win three-four national titles per decade in basketball for the next 30 years and they'd still be football schools even if their football was sub-.500 over that time span.

I'm not smart enough to know what the answer is or even if there needs to be an answer to that. Administrators are always going to look at what brings the most dollars to their institution. As long as Americans make entertainment and football big financial priorities, anything competing with them is going to get pushed aside like they were a Montenegran president.

 

the 50M/year number was for the next 10 years. The 'current' BIG media deal, starting in 2024, only runs 7 years. So, it was a projection and probably a bit too optimistic. But if you assume 75-80M/year for the 3 years on the next deal, that's 225-240M. I saw one rumor that the Ducks will average 32-33M/year. Another rumor it was 40M/year. 33M/year would put the deal at 230M for the 7 years; 35M would be 240-250M; 40M would be 280M

so adding the two projections for 10 years: low side - 440-460M; mid around 470M; high around 500-530M. Divide by 10

I tend to think that it's probably in the 32-35M range with possible escalators if Apple or Amazon want to bid on the night-time linear or a Friday night game package. There's also a reported provision that would allow Oregon/Washington to barrow against future (next media deal) earnings. Pretty sure that was added for Washington as they have some fairly significant budget issues in their AD right now. Oregon doesn't

 

Another irony. You can make the argument that basketball helped get this ball rolling back around 1990.

Penn State for decades wanted an all-sports conference in the Northeast. The Big East then formed but a number of its colleges didn't have DI football, but it did include a number of Penn State's football rivals and potential all-sports conference brethren, like Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College.

The Big East was successful financially and, when it didn't see a need to add Penn State (which wasn't nearly on its level in basketball), discussions started with Penn State and the Big Ten. When that went down, it caused shockwaves.

It didn't take long for Penn State fans to forget about a 100-year rivalry with Pitt; most fans now only talk about it when someone from Pitt says something (or when Pitt does something really bad ... there's still hard feelings about the all-sports thing).

Eventually, the Big East saw the writing on the wall. As good as its basketball was, it couldn't battle football forever. It even tried a football conference, UConn started a DI team, but Pitt, Syracuse and BC went to the ACC, which gave them both great basketball and decent football. West Virginia and Rutgers found all-sports homes. The Big East effectively died because it didn't know how to handle its own early success. And every AD and college president and college booster saw the revenue potential in the big, football-driven conference.

 

Saudi could just buy those schools ....

 

I am referring to ALL athletics, not just football

 

I wish the best for Oregon State and their fans and alumni and all. Always hate any losses to them but not like to UW or ANY of the California schools (minus UCLA for some reason). Hoping they go to the BIG 12 for better competition and all. Same thing for WSU. Hated the losses up there. Such a pain when the Pirate stuck it to my Ducks. But I always admired the Cougs, too.

The PAC12 leadership brought this on themselves. It’s not “deserved” or anything like that, but they had more than enough information and failed to act years ago. Now, individually, the schools are acting in their own interests. I don’t actually blame UCLA in this, either. (USuCk deserves all blame, no credit.)

GO DUCKS! Win the final year of the PAC12!

 

They along with many equity firms are looking to invest in Sports. They see what fledgling ESPN and Fox is doing with College (which with coaches earning 10 million a year & NIL) you can bet they positioning to get involved some way.
Look what happened with golf.....

 

You'd eventually get to a point where college sports would just turn into lower-level club sports. Actually, it's something I think will happen to scholastic sports, sooner or later.

Everyone wants to pay for the sports. No one wants to pay for all the other educational elements that go along with it.

Seriously, in hoops, Saudi should just pay the NBA a king's ransom for the G League. The more Scoot's you have, the more most top teenage players are going to go that route instead of college.

 

And that takes us down the whole rabbit hole of how healthy unregulated capitalism is on a society.

 

yep, but look at all the Audi's, BMW's, Acura, Lexus are on the road. Along with the $2k electric bikes.
Americans love their creature comforts...

 

So did the Romans.

 

Getting off topic, but... I don't know if you've gone shopping for a regular (non-electric) mountain bikes lately, but $2k would be an entry model. I'd assume e-bikes are more expensive?

 

depends on what you're shopping for

I spend a lot of time camping so I entertained the idea of an off-road/hunting e-bike. Those are expensive...I mean, real expensive

there's a Rambo Megatron that has two batteries and AWD. Great range and the gearing allows for some pretty aggressive hill climbing. The problem(s): are it's a $6,300 bike; and, I'd be carrying it on the back of my 5th wheel. So, I'd need a solid receiver hitch ($90); a heavy duty extended bike rack ($600); a full specialized dust cover ($300); security locking system ($100). And I'd need to adapt my RV's electrical system in order to charge the batteries. That would include a sine-wave inverter ($1,500); a 60amp controller ($200); and wiring for a charging hub ($300). And obviously, I'd want to have an extra set of batteries to charge while I'm out on my bike ($1,800)

I decided I didn't really like bikes that much

 

That price range seems more realistic than a $2k e-bike. Everything is expensive these days, including college football!

 

I think ASU is going to the BIg12 with Arizona and Utah.

 

Was at a State Park last week and saw every kind of electric bike you could imagine.
Several were smoking while biking.....
My grandkids are saying, "granddad get an electric bike"....and I say no way, at my age keep on moving means using my legs!
I peddle 7-8 miles a day on the bike at the gym & can peddle easily 5 miles on my Fuji a few times week.