Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott yesterday said that the conference has "agreed to play an additional game in Shanghai" in '16, according to Pete Thamel of SI.com. This comes after Texas plays Washington at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on Nov. 14 of this year. Scott said, "Basically my vision is that this will be an annual tip-off game, the way the Pac-12 starts off every year. It’ll be a premiere team against a premiere non-conference opponent, a new tradition for how we start the season.” Thamel notes the league also has "agreed to a two-year deal with the Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, to sponsor the Pac-12 China Game in Shanghai" in '15 and '16. Costs for the games "will be covered" by the new sponsor deal, which "hints at the potential for overseas companies to become involved with college sports." Scott: "This feels significant to me. The fact that we are partnering with a company like Alibaba, the biggest E-Commerce company in the world, validates the vision and the significance of what we’re doing.” Thamel notes this marks Alibaba’s "first major sponsorship of an organization" in the U.S., sports or otherwise. The game will be televised on ESPN in the U.S. and "distributed live in China via Alibaba’s mobile and digital platform." Scott "declined to reveal the financial specifics of the deal with Alibaba, but did say they are significant enough to cover the costs of the games" (SI.com, 5/13).
