(04-24-2017 01:37 PM)JRsec Wrote: Are you listening X? Their demographics mirror yours. But the outcome does not have to be the same. Here are the PAC's mistakes.
1. Governance. College presidents don't know a damned thing about programming and running a network. This is a lesson they should have learned from the the Big 10 and didn't. The SEC did learn and look where we are now. There isn't enough time in a day to be sensitive to the whims of 12 college presidents and how the want their campuses and sports showcased, and still run a network. The arrogant idiots need to sell a share to some network so that professionals and not local hires make those decisions and maybe twice a year have a face to face with the assembled presidents for input, if then.
2. Why should Direct TV add a product that nobody wants to watch? They are business and not a charity for the PAC. If the product has a market and commands the price then fine. If not? Oh well.
3. There are many terrific women out there who can run networks and transact business. Few of them have hyphenated last names. Never hire a man or a woman with a hyphenated last name. It simply shows that they emphasize minutia over the big picture and are too insecure to be successful.
Now that said it could affect realignment, particularly if FOX lands a deal with the PAC. It will create a bidding war for Texas and Oklahoma. Neither Texas nor Oklahoma really wants to be in the B1G. Texas doesn't want to do a fly over to be in the ACC. Both have wanted associations with the PAC. If the money offered by FOX can lure them to the PAC then the following will happen:
1. The next FOX renewal with the Big 10 will not see an increase and may even decline.
2. ESPN will again redouble efforts to make sure that the SEC can cover DFW and land a larger % of Texas even without the Sooners and Horns.
3. ESPN will have more to invest in the ACC and the acquisitions of Connecticut, Cincinnati, and West Virginia will be pushed.
4. The PAC will gain traction and they will improve their standing leaving the ACC a distant 4th.
5. ESPN will eventually push for more of merger between the ACC and SEC in order to increase content match ups in football and basketball. A scheduling arrangement simply will not be sufficient.
Why? Because we will still have the best brands. Refusing to play games against FOX backed brands in the Big 10 and PAC will protect the recruiting grounds in the Southeast and will keep all of our money in house and give them little opportunity for the improvement of their status.
So if the PAC gets serious, and it sound like to me they are about to do so, not just because of poor carriage, but because they realize that in 5 years the only product that can improve their standing will be gone, and because they don't have the war chest to attract the product that would help them without a networks help, and because the only network that would be interested in spending more than schools might be worth to help facilitate their move to the PAC (which would also boost their poorer inventory) would be FOX, expect realignment to happen sooner and expect ESPN and FOX to be at war over product that would boost either the PAC or the ACC, with the SEC & Big 10 being used to facilitate the transition.
It will be fascinating. It also explains why ESPN is suddenly enhancing their pull in Texas. And, I might add it will mean that either FOX or ESPN will divide the whole Big 12 between the two conferences they hold.
FOX (B10N & PACN) versus ESPN (ACCN & SECN). But either way 10 schools will be divided between 2 conferences and one Network will have 36 programs or the other will have 39 through in Cincinnati or UConn to make 40.
There's an interesting confluence of ideas here.
Assuming the PAC does sell a portion of its network off to FOX in an attempt to survive then what is ESPN's response? How do they secure the product?
If ESPN wants to move Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC for all the reasons we've been discussing recently and if they also want to secure all 10 schools from the Big 12 into the ESPN family then they would be a bit limited with how they could go about doing that.
What I'm referring to is that most of the Big 12 schools are geographical outliers for the ACC and outside of schools like UT, OU, KU, and maybe WVU then I'm not sure any of them would really profit the ACCN anyway. Of course, put all that in the context of Mike Slive saying the next move would be very, very large conferences as opposed to the increases by 2 or 4 that we usually talk about...
I'm going to go a little crazy here as I am want to do. I do remember this article from Berry Tramel from last Summer...
Officials suggest merger
I know it couldn't possibly be the MOST profitable solution for all parties, but I can't help but think it is the MOST profitable for the most parties. SEC/Big 12 merger?
Let's flesh this out in light of new developments...
1. ESPN wants Mexico and the Spanish speaking population of the US, read that as a need to capitalize on TX and the Southwest in general
2. ESPN has green-lighted an ACC Network, doubtful they'll turn back at this stage
3. Big 12 feigned an expansion process in an attempt to cajole something out of the networks
So what is ESPN willing to pay for?
Let's say we did it like this...
West Virginia, Cincinnati, and UConn go to the ACC with Notre Dame going all in...
The remaining 9 Big 12 teams take BYU(let's not forget they are an ESPN property with good revenue and attendance) and merge with the SEC...
The benefit you get is that you can move everyone into regional divisions where you don't have to play schools from the other side of the conference on a regular basis. What would normally be non-conference games are instead conference games played infrequently and everything is under the same roof.
What if ESPN paid for it by robbing FOX of content and essentially shutting the door on Big Ten expansion before it ever has a chance to get started? Convert the LHN into a Spanish language network and carry both the SECN and SEC Deportes nationally. The national part takes on new meaning because multiple regions of the country are covered. The SECN has oodles of content that it could never show so ESPN's other networks don't hurt for ratings.
No more GOR to worry about...no more threats of leaving little brothers behind...
I'm just saying, it would solve a lot of problems for a lot of people.