Paul Finebaum explains why the Pac-12 is currently at a 'tipping point'
ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum believes that the Pac-12 is now at a tipping point. This comes as rumors swirl about conference realignment and the conference is looking for a new media deal.
During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum why he feels that this is going to be a tipping point for the conference.
“I think it’s at a tipping point, Cole, and it’s all about your media rights deals,” Paul Finebaum said.
“[George] Kliavkoff has been dealt a bad blow and I think some of it’s his fault, most of it’s not. Most of it was created by ten years of negativity, which led to them losing their biggest brand last summer in Southern Cal.”
Paul Finebaum explained that because the conference took a hit with USC leaving. On top of that, because the conference is on the West Coast, it doesn’t have good time slots for its games. All of this makes the conference less appealing.
“So, there’s not a lot of attractibility to this league, and I think some of it’s obvious. If you’re televising the Pac-12, it’s usually not in a good time slot because of the difference in the time zones, and I just don’t think they have a lot to offer, either, even if they expand, which, obviously, they’re probably going to, it may help on a local to regional level but it doesn’t help their national brand very much. And I think that’s their biggest problem.”
Greg McElroy then turned around and asked Paul Finebaum if he would be interested in adding the Pac-12, assuming he ran the network.
“I would have limited interest to do with them what ESPN currently does for football. To have games at 10:30, 11:30, whatever time it is on Saturday night. That’s not a great time slot for most people, Greg, but it is a good time slot for the middle to western part of the country when there’s nothing else on. Beyond that, no.”
The Pac-12 is looking for a media rights deal in the near future
Once USC and UCLA announced that they would be leaving for the Big Ten, the conference announced that it would be seeking a new media rights agreement. The idea was that the league wouldn’t lose more schools and could even persuade someone to join them with the deal.
However, since then, the Big 12 has announced it would seek a new deal and has already gotten one. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 has only had some discussion that there will be a streaming element to their deal, said the conference won’t expand until the deal is in place, and there was the announcement that several networks aren’t interested.
Still, the conference is confident that it will have a new deal soon, releasing a statement about it.
“The 10 Pac-12 universities look forward to consummating successful media rights deal(s) in the very near future,” the statement read.
“Based upon positive conversations with multiple potential media rights partners over the past weeks, we remain highly confident in our future growth and success as a conference and united in our commitment to one another.”
Eventually, the Pac-12 will have a media deal. More important is going to be who that deal is with and for what type of value the conference still has.