Gopher_In_NYC
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No turning back now, I guess (ugh). Thanks TX and Okie!!! Curtesy of The Athletic -
theathletic.com
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff on Tuesday, multiple sources told The Athletic.
Their meeting is expected to be a key first step in talks about whether the two conferences would benefit from strategically working together during college sports’ new phase of realignment.
Kliavkoff was unavailable for comment. Bowlsby and the Big 12 declined comment.
Discussions on a pact between the two could go in several different directions. One option would be a scheduling alliance between Big 12 and Pac-12 members. Bowlsby acknowledged this possibility on Monday during his appearance at a Texas Senate committee meeting on the future of college sports in Texas. Pursuing a merger with another conference is another possibility.
“I think there are options for us to partner with other conferences,” Bowlsby said Monday. “There may be opportunity for mergers. There may be opportunities to add members. There may be other opportunities that are currently unforeseen.”
One other possible solution Bowlsby floated while appearing for the committee in Austin on Monday would be the Big 12 working with another conference to aggregate their negotiating rights for the next TV deal.
“At this point, all options are on the table and nothing is a bad option,” one Big 12 source said. “We have to explore everything now. It’s not that we’re in panic mode, but let’s keep talking and keep finding out what’s out there.”
Another Big 12 source expected the Bowlsby-Kliavkoff meeting to be more of an “information download” for the Pac-12’s new commissioner to gain a better sense of what the Big 12’s eight remaining members can bring to the table.
“Time is our friend right now, so it’s not like something has to happen by Sept. 1,” the source said. “It’s a matter of starting to work through this and see what it looks like. We’ve got a runway.”
Bowlsby said Monday that these types of partnership opportunities must be explored before the Big 12 would shift its focus to expansion as the answer to replacing Texas and Oklahoma when the two schools exit the conference.
“We haven’t had formal conversations on candidate members,” Bowlsby said. “We think there’s a sequence at which we need to act, and that includes some of the collaborations that I mentioned earlier.”
The Big 12 is estimating the loss of Texas and Oklahoma will mean roughly a 50 percent reduction in the value of its TV rights for its next deal, if not more. While bringing successful Group of 5 members into the Big 12 would help make up for some of that loss, there’s no one or two obtainable expansion candidates that can come close to fully replacing what the conference is losing.
For that reason, an alliance with the Pac-12 might be a more attractive alternative to pitch to their TV partners. The Pac-12’s rights deal expires in 2024, while the Big 12’s contract expires in 2025. At this point, though, it’s unclear whether a scheduling alliance is considered an appealing option to Pac-12 leadership.
“It’s going to come down to how do our TV partners look at that from a financial perspective, and who knows?” a source said.
A partnership with the Pac-12 would create obvious travel challenges for West Virginia as the lone East Coast member of the Big 12, but one source said the school’s leaders have not objected to Bowlsby exploring these possibilities if they can help maintain Power 5 status and provide financial security.
Such a move, if achievable, would seriously stabilize the Big 12 and would help the Pac-12 as well. Kliavkoff inherited a number of issues in accepting his new role, including a concerning financial gap the Pac-12 faces relative to the SEC and the Big Ten.
Kliavkoff, whose first day on the job was July 1, has said he’s currently in “listening mode” as he tries to assess and forecast the landscape for his membership during these uncertain times. At Pac-12 media day last week, he acknowledged his conference had already received “significant inbound interest” from schools seeking membership. He has called the concept of scheduling alliances an interesting opportunity that is under discussion, though more speculation up to this point has centered on the Pac-12 aligning with the Big Ten.
All these possibilities merit consideration as the rest of the Power 5 conferences work to determine how they’ll respond to and keep up with the SEC’s expansion move. By working together, the Big 12 and Pac-12 could help each other hold off other conferences from attempting to poach their more valuable members.
“This is going to make for some very strange bedfellows going forward,” Bowlsby said on Monday. “These are unprecedented challenges.”
— The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman contributed reporting.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby meets with Pac-12’s George Kliavkoff: Sources
The meeting could be a key first step in talks about whether the two conferences would benefit from strategically working together.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff on Tuesday, multiple sources told The Athletic.
Their meeting is expected to be a key first step in talks about whether the two conferences would benefit from strategically working together during college sports’ new phase of realignment.
Kliavkoff was unavailable for comment. Bowlsby and the Big 12 declined comment.
Discussions on a pact between the two could go in several different directions. One option would be a scheduling alliance between Big 12 and Pac-12 members. Bowlsby acknowledged this possibility on Monday during his appearance at a Texas Senate committee meeting on the future of college sports in Texas. Pursuing a merger with another conference is another possibility.
“I think there are options for us to partner with other conferences,” Bowlsby said Monday. “There may be opportunity for mergers. There may be opportunities to add members. There may be other opportunities that are currently unforeseen.”
One other possible solution Bowlsby floated while appearing for the committee in Austin on Monday would be the Big 12 working with another conference to aggregate their negotiating rights for the next TV deal.
“At this point, all options are on the table and nothing is a bad option,” one Big 12 source said. “We have to explore everything now. It’s not that we’re in panic mode, but let’s keep talking and keep finding out what’s out there.”
Another Big 12 source expected the Bowlsby-Kliavkoff meeting to be more of an “information download” for the Pac-12’s new commissioner to gain a better sense of what the Big 12’s eight remaining members can bring to the table.
“Time is our friend right now, so it’s not like something has to happen by Sept. 1,” the source said. “It’s a matter of starting to work through this and see what it looks like. We’ve got a runway.”
Bowlsby said Monday that these types of partnership opportunities must be explored before the Big 12 would shift its focus to expansion as the answer to replacing Texas and Oklahoma when the two schools exit the conference.
“We haven’t had formal conversations on candidate members,” Bowlsby said. “We think there’s a sequence at which we need to act, and that includes some of the collaborations that I mentioned earlier.”
The Big 12 is estimating the loss of Texas and Oklahoma will mean roughly a 50 percent reduction in the value of its TV rights for its next deal, if not more. While bringing successful Group of 5 members into the Big 12 would help make up for some of that loss, there’s no one or two obtainable expansion candidates that can come close to fully replacing what the conference is losing.
For that reason, an alliance with the Pac-12 might be a more attractive alternative to pitch to their TV partners. The Pac-12’s rights deal expires in 2024, while the Big 12’s contract expires in 2025. At this point, though, it’s unclear whether a scheduling alliance is considered an appealing option to Pac-12 leadership.
“It’s going to come down to how do our TV partners look at that from a financial perspective, and who knows?” a source said.
A partnership with the Pac-12 would create obvious travel challenges for West Virginia as the lone East Coast member of the Big 12, but one source said the school’s leaders have not objected to Bowlsby exploring these possibilities if they can help maintain Power 5 status and provide financial security.
Such a move, if achievable, would seriously stabilize the Big 12 and would help the Pac-12 as well. Kliavkoff inherited a number of issues in accepting his new role, including a concerning financial gap the Pac-12 faces relative to the SEC and the Big Ten.
Kliavkoff, whose first day on the job was July 1, has said he’s currently in “listening mode” as he tries to assess and forecast the landscape for his membership during these uncertain times. At Pac-12 media day last week, he acknowledged his conference had already received “significant inbound interest” from schools seeking membership. He has called the concept of scheduling alliances an interesting opportunity that is under discussion, though more speculation up to this point has centered on the Pac-12 aligning with the Big Ten.
All these possibilities merit consideration as the rest of the Power 5 conferences work to determine how they’ll respond to and keep up with the SEC’s expansion move. By working together, the Big 12 and Pac-12 could help each other hold off other conferences from attempting to poach their more valuable members.
“This is going to make for some very strange bedfellows going forward,” Bowlsby said on Monday. “These are unprecedented challenges.”
— The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman contributed reporting.
