The new PAC 12 commissioner, Teresa Gould, has engaged the services of media titan Octagon to negotiate a media deal for the revamped conference, aiming to bolster its prospects from 2025 onwards. The conference now includes its original members, Oregon State and Washington State, along with Mountain West transferees Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, and Gonzaga, which will participate solely in basketball.
What will Octagon do for the PAC 12?
Expect Octagon to approach ESPN, FOX, CBS, the CW, and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports (TBS, TNT, truTV), as well as streaming platforms like Apple TV, Prime Video, and YouTube. With at least one slot remaining to become a formal conference with eight football-playing members, Octagon will present a number of options to potential media partners. These range from simply adding another western school to reach the required eight members in football to fulfill the conference recognition criteria, or perhaps the PAC 12 would be better served by revisiting Memphis, Tulane, USF, and UTSA with an enhanced financial offer sufficient to entice them away from the American.
Bottomline is how best can they get the most dollars and exposure possible in this new media landscape.
Who is Octagon and why are they the best option for the PAC 12 get just what want and needs?
Among their accomplishments are securing Home Depot as the title sponsor for ESPN’s “College GameDay Built by Home Depot,” orchestrating a significant media rights agreement between the NWSL and CBS Sports and Twitch, and endorsing a range of brands including Coca-Cola and BMW. They boast a solid history of collaboration with leading broadcast, cable, and streaming networks. Additionally, Octagon represents a collection of potential and current marketing partners that could be persuaded to join as PAC 12 media partners.
A change in the media landscape since 2023
A couple of major factors have changed since the last time the PAC 12 went to market and turned down a deal with Apple TV causing the conference to lose Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12 while Oregon and Washington became new members of the Big Ten.
Time is indeed a crucial factor as Warner Brothers Discovery Sports, having not secured the NBA rights, now has funds available for other ventures. Meanwhile, the CW network is increasing its live sports offerings and then there are some potential partnerships with platforms like Apple, Prime Video, or YouTube TV.
If only the old PAC 12 had the right representation and patience they may still be together
While it’s not fair to blame PAC 12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff for every mistake made by the PAC 12 in 2023, two significant errors were not expanding with four Mountain West schools—Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State— adding Gonzaga basketball to offset the loss of UCLA and USC, and then hiring Octagon to manage the media rights package, which might have kept the conference intact instead of fragmenting between the Big 12 and Big Ten.
In the end what is the best result for the PAC 12?
In my opinion, crafting a media deal that extends the conference’s reach from the Pacific to the Atlantic would be strategic. This could be achieved by incorporating the four American members recently approached—Memphis, Tulane, UTSA, and USF—thereby providing the conference with four television windows and positioning it as the premier entity within the Group of 6. Additionally, exploring the possibility of UConn’s interest in joining this alliance could be beneficial.
To make that happen, it would require $15 million per member, which could establish an East Coast branch for the PAC 12. Should the figure be around $10 million, they could simply incorporate another school from the West and remain successful. For Memphis fans, the possibility of leaving the American to join the PAC 12 with only Tulane seems like a long shot, but sometimes long shots do pay off.
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