With excessive stakes and low margin for error, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould determined she wanted face time. Not the app model. The unique model: face-to–face time.
So she boarded a flight to Spokane.
It was Saturday afternoon, and growth plans had stalled. After preliminary success with 4 faculties from the Mountain West, the Pac-12 had been rejected, in public trend, by Memphis, South Florida, Tulane and UNLV. Though the convention’s underlying technique remained sound, the optics generated by a collection of rejections had been poor.
The following transfer was pivotal, and the convention turned its focus to the highest accessible prize within the realignment recreation. One other whiff was untenable.
Gould flew to Spokane (with out her consultants) to satisfy with Gonzaga president Thayne McCulloh and athletic director Chris Standiford and persuade them to go away the West Coast Convention in a transfer that may reshape faculty sports activities on the West Coast.
Her determination stood in stark distinction to the method taken by her predecessor, George Kliavkoff when the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations had been on the point of collapse in early August of 2023.
As an alternative of flying to Eugene and Seattle to personally attraction to the faculties that may decide the Pac-12’s future, Kliavkoff stayed house and tried to work issues out remotely. He failed to know what Gould understood instinctively: Faculty sports activities is all about relationships, particularly in probably the most pressurized moments.
After touchdown in Spokane on Saturday evening, Gould spent Sunday with McCulloh and Standiford, a longtime buddy, plus the overall counsels from the college and the convention. (Standiford and Gould are so shut that in the course of the information convention Tuesday afternoon, he referred to Gould by her maiden title, Kuehn, earlier than catching himself.)
They walked by campus and negotiated round a desk. Gould additionally met individually with Gonzaga’s basketball coaches, Mark Few (males) and Lisa Fortier (ladies). And over the course of 10 hours, she hammered out a deal.
They dined collectively Sunday evening.
Gould, who prefers the shadows to the highlight, was not accessible to remark, and the main points of her discussions with Gonzaga’s management may stay personal without end. A supply acquainted with the state of affairs stated solely: “There was no pretense other than to ensure fairness and a commitment to student-athletes.”
Gould broke the momentous information to the presidents and athletic administrators of the brand new Pac-12 on Monday afternoon, then requested for secrecy — for an evening with no leaks to the media till the deal was sealed.
On Tuesday morning, the information turned official, super-charging the Pac-12’s rebuild.
Gonzaga doesn’t rely as a full-time member beneath NCAA guidelines, leaving the convention one faculty wanting assembly the NCAA requirement. However the Zags’ presence transforms the truth and notion of a course of that started three weeks in the past with the announcement that Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State would be a part of the convention in the summertime of 2026. (Utah State later turned the seventh full-time member.)
The convention should discover an eighth full-time member — a college that competes in soccer and basketball — by the summer season of 2026.
Now that the Zags are on board, the place does the Pac-12 flip subsequent?
To the market.
With seven soccer faculties and one basketball powerhouse, the convention has its core construction in place and may begin negotiating a media rights settlement to start in the summertime of 2026.
These negotiations may final weeks or months, relying on the complexity of the deal. The vary of potentialities consists of:
— An unique association with one media firm (ESPN, for instance) that may broadcast Pac-12 soccer and basketball video games over its linear and digital platforms.
— Partnerships with a number of media corporations, probably together with ESPN, Fox and The CW, which is broadcasting Pac-12 soccer video games this season and increasing its sports activities choices. Or maybe Turner, which misplaced its NBA rights and companions with CBS on the NCAA Match, will probably be .
— Agreements with each linear and streaming corporations that may contain Pac-12 Enterprises, the convention’s wholly-owned manufacturing studio. (The CW is utilizing Pac-12 Enterprises this season to provide Washington State and Oregon State soccer telecasts.)
— An unprecedented, unknown, not-yet-conceived association that we are going to merely name Possibility X.
In any case, the Pac-12 can get inventive with its membership construction, its media companions and its soccer scheduling. The convention may add yet one more faculty or three extra faculties. It may play on Sundays or Wednesdays. Every crew may play a home-and-home collection with a devoted convention opponent. The schedule may embrace impartial web site video games in Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
“It’s all on the table,” stated a supply acquainted with the scheduling technique.
The clean canvas consists of basketball.
“These (expansion) talks were much different because they come from a different place,” Standiford defined throughout his information convention. “And that may be a core a part of our determination: To grow to be a part of one thing that’s … utilizing the traditions of yesterday to innovate and take a look at the up to date nature of what faculty athletics is and to construct one thing that is perhaps extra adaptable than conventional buildings.
“It’s super exciting to be around people who think differently and think out of the box.”
The media rights negotiations could lead on anyplace, however the high line is similar: The Pac-12’s income doesn’t depend upon the identification of the eighth full-time member.
There are not any faculties accessible that may materially alter the Pac-12’s media valuation now that the seven soccer faculties and Gonzaga are in place. Not even Memphis and Tulane, with their Central Time Zone kickoff home windows, will considerably alter the worth, business sources stated.
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In consequence, the usual course of for negotiating media rights offers has been flipped: The Pac-12 will head to the negotiating desk and not using a full complement of faculties, lower the perfect deal it will possibly discover, then form the remaining membership slots to suit the media deal.
“Everybody is aware of they want a minimal of eight full-time members,” a supply stated. “But the reality is, they have 20 months to meet that minimum.”
The convention retained Navigate, the sports activities and leisure consulting agency, to deal with growth, and the corporate has fielded dozens of calls from faculties. However official negotiations are on maintain whereas the Pac-12 seeks readability on a media rights deal.
That course of may conclude earlier than Thanksgiving or final into 2025. To borrow one among John Picket’s best-known phrases, the convention plans to maneuver rapidly however not hurry.
As soon as the framework of a media deal is reached, the membership subject will return to heart stage.
Gonzaga “changed the chessboard, opened up some opportunities,” a supply stated.
“Some of the schools (previously linked to the conference) are not fully off the table.”
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