When the Pac-12 "finishes up its annual spring meetings Friday, its television network still won't be shown on DirecTV," and the roughly $1.5M paycheck that schools get from the Pac-12 Networks -- in addition to roughly $18M from ESPN and Fox -- will "continue to lag far behind what Big Ten and SEC schools get from their conference networks," according to Bruce Pascoe of the ARIZONA DAILY STAR. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott on Thursday "waded through all of that tension during meetings and addressed it afterward" during a media briefing. Scott: "It's a very challenging environment for our schools and our athletic directors. I get that. They're facing a lot of financial pressure, competitive pressure and there's a lot of fan frustration, too, things like night games and if they're DirecTV customers. Schools are always hearing from fans." Scott at the same time also "spoke of a bigger picture, a positive picture about exposure and on-field accomplishments." Arizona AD Greg Byrne said, "There are many positives about the Pac-12 Networks and our Pac-12 model, and we focused on a lot of those things." Scott said that he is "'still knocking' and hoping to restart talks with DirecTV, noting that the Pac-12 is short of its hopes to have full distribution by now." But the conference's primary TV rights-holders ESPN and Fox "aren't likely to ask for any fewer night games, having paid for Pac-12 flexibility" in a $3B, 12-year deal that was struck in '11. Scott said that there "would only be a small reduction in night games in exchange for other trade-offs with the media partners" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 5/6).
CHILL PILL: ESPN.com's Ted Miller wrote under the header, "For Now, Larry Scott Chills Out Previously Combustible Pac-12." Scott at the Pac-12 meetings apparently "wielded a fairly effective fire extinguisher," though it is "certainly possible that a recent embarrassing public tempest that involved Scott calling out UCLA AD Dan Guerrero over his misrepresenting the conference's wishes with a potential satellite-camp ban merely led to a resolution to keep the conference's dirty laundry to itself." Scott said that 15-20% of the discussions were "spent on talking about collaborative initiatives for schools to increase revenues, from ticket sales to multimedia rights to donations" (ESPN.com, 5/5).
LET'S TALK IN PRIVATE: In Phoenix, Paola Boivin writes Scott, "depending on whom you ask," is "either a visionary or a charlatan, an innovator or a disappointment." But in reality, Scott is "behind the remarkable transformation of a conference that looks nothing like the weary-eyed organization he took over." But for a "well-polished, accomplished Harvard graduate, communication at times has been his biggest stumbling block." Scott "seemed optimistic about the direction of the conference and received some strong voices of support from those" like Arizona State VP/Athletics Ray Anderson. But a few other conference ADs privately said that it "felt good to air out issues and feel more encouraged than before." Scott was "asked if he would consider a contract extension" but said that those are discussions he "thinks should be private with the people he serves" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 5/6).
GREAT SCOTT: Arizona Daily Star Sports Editor Ryan Finley said Scott "has a long checklist of things he must do and you wonder if the member schools are getting restless." Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen said NBC's "SNL" could do a great sketch on Scott "because he just seems to do the wrong thing or appear the wrong way." Hansen added, "He cannot do anything about the start times -- he cannot -- because ESPN is the co-commissioner of this league." Finley said, "You need to give the impression that you are working night and day to fix something. Larry Scott does not, to me, give the impression that he's working to fix the DirecTV situation." Finley added, "As a visionary, if we can use that word, he checks all the boxes. Yes, it's smart to try to go into Asia, it's smart to try to play these games overseas, it's smart to try to get some sort of foothold in China. I think that's great but if your hometown schools can't watch football games, that is a larger priority" ("Greg Hansen's Video Notebook," TUCSON.com, 5/4).
