Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

ESPN Layoffs

Not new news but this does not bode well for any hope that ESPN is willing to pay up for the PAC. Really hard to justify overpaying for non LA schools with little national attention immediately after letting a bunch of staff go.
 
I really don’t think Kirk is the right coach and it has nothing to do with the situation at OC.
No.1 He has cost the team, university and state lots of goodwill among African Americans.
No. 2, Kirk’s record vs. Iowa State is 13-10 while Hayden, starting from nothing, amassed a 16-4 record.
No. 3. Kirk is not honest with the media, fans or university. One little example is that he said he would review everything from top to bottom after Iowa state won last year,including Petras and his son. That didn’t happened. Kirk and the U of I make it very hard for journalists to do their job. The
No. 4. Kirk wasn’t even the first pick to replace Hayden and two in Hayden’s coaching tree had much more remarkable careers than Kirk.
No. 5. Iowa’s goal in hiring Hayden’s replacement should have been someone who could build on what Hayden did and take Iowa to the next level. That didn’t happen. When Iowa State replaced a legend, their next two hires took Iowa State to the next level, winning the Big 8 championship and then going to the elite 8.
Certainly, Kirk provided continuity and stability to the Iowa program. But that only serves the administration, not the fan base or university.
You do realize that Hayden & Kirk are 2 sides of the same coin. It's not like Hayden's Big10 record is much better than Ferentz. To expect next level success at Iowa isn't very likely. Sure Stoops had more success at OU, but who knows if his system would have been as successful at Iowa or he would have stayed 20+ years.

Hayden Big10 Win %: 61% over 162 games
Ferentz Big10 Win %: 58% over 198 games

Hayden Bowl Record: 6-7-1
Ferentz Bowl Record: 10-9

Hayden NY6 Bowls: 3 Rose Bowls
Ferentz NY6 Bowls: 1 Rose Bowl & 2 Orange Bowls

The Big difference between Hayden & Kirk is success in the Iowa/Iowa State matchup.
 
ESPN Layoffs

Not new news but this does not bode well for any hope that ESPN is willing to pay up for the PAC. Really hard to justify overpaying for non LA schools with little national attention immediately after letting a bunch of staff go.
Plus they are going to have to pony up for NBA rights as well
 
I'm sure this will be followed by plenty of "MHver doesn't actually know anything" posts, but the in house production cost point is very important. I've seen people talk about how that isn't going to be reported by GK and the PAC as a way to make the media deal seem better. I'm sure that's true, and Canzano and the likes will do the same.

But the schools are going to obviously understand this, so I will not be surprised at all to see the number pre-in-house production costs reported showing similar $ to the Big 12, yet AZ and CU still leaving. Followed by Canzano saying they were a bad fit anyway and the PAC is way better with SDSU and SMU anyway.
Right. The Pac 12 Network operating expenses were $77 million in 2021-2022. I have heard it cost $200k-$400k to produce a game so not sure how it got to $77 million. They broadcast about 35 football games/year but then have other sports too. I know there are announcer salaries and travel expenses.
 
It’s tough to imagine the PAC 12 announcing any deal after the 20 “deadlines” we’ve passed since Kliavkoff announced he wasn’t “sure if we’ll go shopping there yet”.
Next artificial deadline is 07/21 I guess.
 
It’s tough to imagine the PAC 12 announcing any deal after the 20 “deadlines” we’ve passed since Kliavkoff announced he wasn’t “sure if we’ll go shopping there yet”.
so after the pac-12 media days arrive and a deal isnt there... they fire GK, right? does this then let them stall out some more to let the new commissioner work on a deal?
 
so after the pac-12 media days arrive and a deal isnt there... they fire GK, right? does this then let them stall out some more to let the new commissioner work on a deal?
I do think Scott and GK have been idiots. But one of these days the PAC has to start to wake up to the idea that they aren't in high demand. Not helping matters is they have a lot of differences among member schools as far as how much they'd trade off cash for more linear. They used to think they had a great product, but Scott just botched the deal. Now they'll throw GK under the bus. Then the next guy isn't going to deliver them some great deal.
 
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You do realize that Hayden & Kirk are 2 sides of the same coin. It's not like Hayden's Big10 record is much better than Ferentz. To expect next level success at Iowa isn't very likely. Sure Stoops had more success at OU, but who knows if his system would have been as successful at Iowa or he would have stayed 20+ years.

Hayden Big10 Win %: 61% over 162 games
Ferentz Big10 Win %: 58% over 198 games

Hayden Bowl Record: 6-7-1
Ferentz Bowl Record: 10-9

Hayden NY6 Bowls: 3 Rose Bowls
Ferentz NY6 Bowls: 1 Rose Bowl & 2 Orange Bowls

The Big difference between Hayden & Kirk is success in the Iowa/Iowa State matchup.

I've always thought both were easily above average and Iowa got really fortunate to cover 3-5 decades with them. KF at least says the things to be respectful to ISU as well, not like an Alford situation where he's crapping on ISU to the media.

The one advantage over HF may be Kirk's performance in his older years. I'm guessing he's the same age now as HF when results dropped off but his teams are still really competitive. Big Ten West probably helped that a lot with that though.

On the flip side I think they've been absolutely crazy to not roll the dice with 2-3 other coaches during the soon to be two decade stint of Fran ball. Who knows what they could've achieved and they'd have lost practically nothing by trying for better coaches. Then you add on top of the lack of results that Fran's actions are often news making embarrassments and he played his below average and average kids more minutes than multiple 1st round NBA draft picks. There's a lot of negatives and few positives, at least from the perspective of what an ISU fan expects for basketball success. Kirk's positives outweigh the negatives very easily if you put on Hawkeye glasses, Fran's easily do not unless you've deluded yourself about him.
 
so after the pac-12 media days arrive and a deal isnt there... they fire GK, right? does this then let them stall out some more to let the new commissioner work on a deal?

Can’t wait to learn what his early exit package is lol. People need to realize that sometimes businesses and organizations get run in to the ground because of bad hires. That’s what is happening to the PAC - 12 right now. They are doing everything backwards on a highly condensed timeframe before their current deal is up.

If someone could do a timeline comparison starting at the OUT exit to the media extension for the Big 12, and starting at the USC/UCLA exit to today I think it would be eye opening.

In the end it’s all about the commissioner hires and the difference in attitudes of the Big 12 and the PAC-12. That’s what this boils down to.Pac12 has a classic dinosaur pretend alpha coupled with schools with a “lemonade? We can’t make a fine Pinot with lemons!” Attitude.

Big 12 has a well-networked guy that has been through the wars with a group of schools with a “make lemonade” attitude.

It’s almost the plot to “Revenge of the Nerds”.
 
Right. The Pac 12 Network operating expenses were $77 million in 2021-2022. I have heard it cost $200k-$400k to produce a game so not sure how it got to $77 million. They broadcast about 35 football games/year but then have other sports too. I know there are announcer salaries and travel expenses.
Didn't someone earlier this week put out like $27M per team, but the conference covered the P12N expenses? That would knock it down around $20M. That's a conference killing number, if true.
 
I do think Scott and GK have been idiots. But one of these days the PAC has to start to wake up to the idea that they aren't in high demand. Not helping matters is they have a lot of differences among member schools as far as how much they'd trade off cash for more linear. They used to think they had a great product, but Scott just botched the deal. Now they'll throw GK under the bus. Then the next guy isn't going to deliver them some great deal.
Scott is the #1 cause of their problems. He was 100% in it for himself, and over his head at the same time. What a failure. Finally someone other than Texas destroyed a conference!

Kliavkoff I think would have been OK in normal times. But with this level of pressure and challenge... he just isn't the guy. He doesn't have the cards to play, sure, but he doesn't really know the rules of the game and isn't being very creative about playing them either.

Big12 VERY fortunate to have got a media and dealmaking guy right when media and dealmaking was critically important. I say fortunate, but they did select this guy - they made their own luck by making a great choice. Yormark didn't have great cards to play either, but he absolutely knows the game and in turn has played his cards brilliantly.
 
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I do think Scott and GK have been idiots. But one of these days the PAC has to start to wake up to the idea that they aren't in high demand. Not helping matters is they have a lot of differences among member schools as far as how much they'd trade off cash for more linear. They used to think they had a great product, but Scott just botched the deal. Now they'll throw GK under the bus. Then the next guy isn't going to deliver them some great deal.
I really don't think they will.

One day, they'll wake up, and realize that none of their games are going to be broadcast because they haven't made a new media deal.
 
Can’t wait to learn what his early exit package is lol. People need to realize that sometimes businesses and organizations get run in to the ground because of bad hires. That’s what is happening to the PAC - 12 right now. They are doing everything backwards on a highly condensed timeframe before their current deal is up.

If someone could do a timeline comparison starting at the OUT exit to the media extension for the Big 12, and starting at the USC/UCLA exit to today I think it would be eye opening.

In the end it’s all about the commissioner hires and the difference in attitudes of the Big 12 and the PAC-12. That’s what this boils down to.Pac12 has a classic dinosaur pretend alpha coupled with schools with a “lemonade? We can’t make a fine Pinot with lemons!” Attitude.

Big 12 has a well-networked guy that has been through the wars with a group of schools with a “make lemonade” attitude.

It’s almost the plot to “Revenge of the Nerds”.
he will get a parachute of millions, and i am not sure he is entirely to blame. he hasnt done great but the current PAC situation IMO is privelege on display. everything has always worked out for the PAC, and they just expect that it eventually will again. and GK is kind of stuck trying to impress reality on them.
 

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