Review-Journal: Is there anything you can tell us about realignment and its impact on the Pac-12?
Kliavkoff: “I think we’re really, really happy with the 12 that we have in the league. The opportunity to revisit that following Texas and Oklahoma has certainly presented itself. I am not actively poaching any school or convincing anyone to leave their existing conference, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t listening to schools that wanted to go in the Pac-12, and we’ve had a lot of them reach out. Probably all of the ones you would expect and several you’d be surprised by.
“We have taken initial meetings with everyone that has expressed an interest. We have a working group … who are together deciding on what to recommend … At the end of the day, they’ll make the decision about whether or not to offer admission to the Pac-12 to any other schools.”
Review-Journal: Do you have a deadline?
Kliavkoff: “There’s no hard deadline related to any of this, but I would say I don’t think it’s good for college athletics given the vibration that’s going on as a result of the Texas and Oklahoma news. The quicker we can dampen that vibration, the better. We will have a decision on whether we intend to expand or not in the next couple of weeks.”
He said next couple of weeks is when they make a decision. However, what stood out to me is
In the next three to four years, three of the Power Five conferences are going to renegotiate those deals, but I think the membership of those conferences are going to look a lot like they do today.”
So he will not kneecap the big12. At most two schools
…You also have AP voters and Heisman candidate voters who may not be able to see all of that game. So we’re getting paid more for that game, but it costs us in national exposure and perhaps a competitive advantage for getting into the (College Football Playoff). We’re going to have to balance all of that, but all media-rights negotiation is a balancing act.
This is the only scenario where our OOC schedule in the next few years makes sense.
I’m hoping our AD/Leadership know a whole lot more about this than what they are leading on.
I guess we will find out soon.
Unlike the Big12 dog and poney show for a TV deal increase , I don’t think the PAC would say this unless they were serious.
The central time zone inventory that they’ve desperately coveted suddenly became available to make a move feasible and I hope we are part of their 4 pack. They’ve been patient this whole time and we’ve been communicating with them on what we need to do to be “PAC Worthy” for a decade or more.
This could also mean the official end of the Big 12.
If you are West Virginia or Baylor…you are scared to death right now. With the aggressive actions by Baylor recently, I think they know the writing is on the wall that they will not have a Power landing spot.
Maybe UH can recommend that Baylor be our AAC replacement…
The dominoes are about to start falling …and fast.
UH + TT + OSU + one other to the PAC
Iowa State + Kansas to the B1G
Baylor + West Virginia + TCU + Kansas State to the AAC.
If you haven’t bought your TT tickets and recruited people to go with you…now is the time.
That game could feature two potential PAC members and they will be paying attention to how well that game sells.
Even if the PAC decides to expand, I can’t see the BIG doing it right now. The BIG distributes so much more to their teams. If the PAC is on the fence/struggling to balance adding schools in Texas for exposure/Central time zone and the PAC us currently getting mid 30m from the networks, how do you rationalize KU/ISU bringing 50m each to the BIG?
I think this is great news for UH (even if they make it known they aren’t expanding), but means nothing about BIG expansion.
I’d be stunned if the Big 10 expanded any time soon.
And I’d be more stunned if any expansion included Iowa State–ever. The Big 10 already has the flagship in Iowa, a relatively small state re population. The Big 10 will never take Iowa State unless air transportation becomes unavailable and we’re back to riding buses to away games.
AT THE POKER TABLE A FELLOW FROM ODEASA
SAID A FOOTBALL FRIEND SAID THAT PAC 12 WAS
TAKING OKS AND TT. I SAID I HAD HEARD THAT
THEY WERE ALSO TAKING UH AND KAN. HE SAID
HE LIKED THAT A LOT BETTER. HE FELT UH SHOULD BE IN A MAJOR CONF. I SURE HOPE WE
ARE NOT DISAPOINTED ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
I ALWAYS HAVE ON MY UH HAT AND GET A LOT OF
COMMENTS ON UH. GO COOGS
IF Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Houston & either Kansas or UNLV join the PAC, would the AAC poach the remaining Big 12 schools or would the Big 12 poach AAC schools plus BYU to get back to 10?
