Interesting breakdown that highlights a lot of the PAC 12’s issues right now. The money issue is having an effect on football, but the recruiting pool out west is also drying up…especially on defense. I did think the part I pulled out below was interesting.
Perhaps more troubling than the potentially fixable problems related to TV finances and staff salaries is ticket sales, which is impacting college football at varying levels nationwide .
According to USA Today, only 12 of 52 public Power 5 programs generated less than $15 million in ticket sales in 2017, the most recent data available. Five of those programs were from the Pac-12.
It’s possible, it may also be that by the time the PAC12 contract is ready to be negotiated, OU and UT will have already let the conference know whether or not they will be moving there or not. At that point, the PAC12 could decide to move forward with expansion plans before those schools “officially” decide in order to maximize their next contract.
Some of it Phoenix compared to Tucson. More options in Phoenix with 4 pro teams.
Arizona also tends to have better non-football programs which boosts their ticket count. Basketball is often in the mix for the national title as is Baseball. I believe they have some other good programs as well.
Ticket sales is a bit of red herring, since most schools require a donation to purchase in certain areas of the stadium. I prefer adding ticket sales with donations to get a better estimate of “fan dollar” support. Worst reporting P5 teams with various American, MWC and other schools.
Note Pac 12 with seven schools among the bottom 13 P5 schools. This is why I think it’s a great fit for us - won’t take much to get us on a level playing field there.
Note: New Mexico has much stronger fan support than Colo St, and replaces UConn well on that score. Heck, VCU has about the same as Colo St.
Austin is not a college town. College Station is a college town. Austin has a metropolitan over 2 million and there is a lot more going on there than just UT.
The more P5 conferences differentiate from each other the better chances there are for realignment. The network/money dream was for the P5 to all be one big happy family and never expand. Those expectations were never realistic with having 4 slots in the CFP. Then the committee keeps adding 2 SEC teams or 1.5 ACC teams instead of playing nice and rotating the 4 p5 champs. It’s only going to get worse (better for us.)
I think the biggest problem with pac 12 sports is geography.
They are 3 hours behind time where ALL the knowledgeable sports media and all knowing sports people live, write stories, have deadlines and wine to drink.
I don’t think it is all timing. When USC was good, I watched Reggie Bush and company. The PAC is missing the elite team. Washington is better now, but still needs better athletes. Oregon, UCLA, and USC have been in a little funk. You also have Clemson being all world.
The Southern California football recruiting is as good as ever. Kids will go to the program that will give them the most limelight. I have no doubt that if Saban will walk into the Coliseum locker room tonight it would take him a couple of seasons to win the fake cfp National Championship.
This list only shows AQ conferences coaches. It’s really embarrassing for the AQs to have a non-AQ coach making as much or more than half the AQ teams.
