|
John Canzano:
RADIO SILENCE:
It’s been quiet in the last few days and for good reason. The Pac-12 is engaged in an exclusive, 30-day negotiating period with ESPN and Fox. I’m told ESPN has been “active, interested and creative” by a conference source.
Is the silence good?
Bad?
Neither?
One sitting athletic director characterized the silence as “good.”
The conference’s exclusive negotiating period expires Aug. 4.
I’m told that ESPN and the Pac-12 are a good bet to come to an agreement before that window ends, but Fox would still get to bid on the Pac-12’s rights or can wait until the period expires or waive those rights. The hunch here is that we may see some resolution before the July 29 Pac-12 Football Media Day.
AWKWARD MEETING:
Pac-12 Media Day is being held in downtown Los Angeles. It’s going to be awkward and potentially entertaining.
UCLA and USC will have to sit and answer questions about their defection to the Big Ten. I suspect Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff will want to have something newsy and optimistic to share with the public at that time.
I also think this will be the final Media Day held in Los Angeles. Moving forward, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the event moved to Las Vegas or rotated among Seattle, Phoenix, the Bay Area, Salt Lake City and Portland.
Former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott brought the event to Los Angeles in 2011. Scott started his remarks that day with: “First, let me start by welcoming you to the FOX Studios here in Los Angeles, the first time we're holding our media day here. In Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, an important center for the Pac-12 conference.”
Reading that quote again reminded me of Kliavkoff’s remarks in March during the Pac-12 Conference Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas.
Said Kliavkoff: “The emergence of Las Vegas as a sports capital of the world is significant.”
FIRED UP:
California Gov. Gavin Newsome was not happy that he wasn’t consulted prior to UCLA’s decision to bolt to the Big Ten.
“No big deal. I’m the Governor of the state of California,” Newsom said. “Maybe it’s a bigger deal that I’m the chair of the UC Regents. I read about it. Is it a good idea? Did we have a chance to discuss the merits or de-merits? I’m not aware of it. It was done in isolation.”
Newsom has spirited opinions about it. He wasn’t consulted. Never asked for an opinion and said, “Trust me when I say this, ‘We’re not going to be looking into it, we are already looking into it within minutes of reading it in the newspaper.’”
Former Washington state Senator Mike Baumgartner is the former chair of the Washington State Senate’s Commerce, Labor and Sports Committee and former vice chair of Senate Ways and Means and Senate Higher Education Committee.
Said Baumgartner: “In all my years as the vice chair or higher education in the Washington Senate, I can’t think of anything either UW or WSU did that even approached this level of significance without Regent’s voting approval.”
I’ll update here with more… sorry for posting twice in one day, but this stuff is super interesting to me and I think relevant to you.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
|