The Pac-12 "remains in the shadow" of the Big Ten on key strategic initiatives vital to its football future, particularly when it comes to its "media strategy," according to Jon Wilner of the San Jose MERCURY NEWS. One of the Big Ten's many advantages over the Pac-12 is the "timing of its media contract cycle." The Big Ten signed its current media deals in '17, six years after the Pac-12 agreed to terms with ESPN and Fox, and it "will sign the new deals one year before the Pac-12." While the Pac-12 was locked into a 12-year partnership -- it "feels like 20 years on the cash-starved campuses -- the Big Ten agreed to a shorter cycle that allowed it to feed at the media trough first." It is a "sizzling market for live sports." The Pac-12's media rights expire in the summer of '24. Being first to the negotiating table "will allow the Big Ten to gobble up not only cash but the highly valuable, and somewhat limited, Saturday broadcast windows." Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, who inherited the situation from Larry Scott, "is stuck." Wilner: "How much cash would remain for the Pac-12, which could be third in college football's feeding line behind not only the Big Ten but also an expanded College Football Playoff?" The Pac-12 is guaranteed to receive a "hefty bump from its current deals with ESPN and Fox, which average $250 million per year over the life of the agreement." Wilner: "But will the conference max out? And crucially, will it max out with the most desirable broadcast windows?" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 3/3).
