A couple of hours later Washington and Utah would play for the title. But the commissioner was on defense that day, explaining away the series I’d written about the conference’s lavish offices, his bloated $5.3 million paycheck, the downtown-San Francisco office, and the chartered planes he enjoys.
Scott, who draws a double salary for overseeing the conference and the network, was being pressed for answers by the room. He was in full spin mode as he pointed out that the Pac-12 wasn’t just a conference.
He said, “we’re actually a media company as well.”
The first six weeks of the season will be televised by a combination of ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox and FS1. Fox will televise the Dec. 18 title game. A conference source told me that the Pac-12 hasn’t determined which networks might carry the rest of the Dec 18-19 weekend games.
It’s likely that ABC, ESPN and FS1 take at least three of them. Maybe a fourth. That would leave the Pac-12 Network with a game or two, maybe, if it still wants to be in the football-broadcast business.
We ought to back up right about here for context. Because when the Pac-12 launched the network leadership really didn’t know what it was doing. That’s become evident as I’ve talked with people involved in the launch.
One high-ranking conference official told me: “No media company wanted to partner with the Pac-12. ESPN declined. FOX, CBS, even the Discovery Channel declined. Nobody knows this.
“We weren’t wanted.”
The only option the Pac-12 had was to launch a network itself. It’s since been re-cast as some forward-thinking, ambitious endeavor led by Scott. Truth is, the Pac-12 misread the market then tried to shift the narrative. It helps explain why it ultimately failed in so many glaring ways, including gobbling up 170,000 square feet of expensive downtown-San Francisco real estate for the studios.
“I don’t think anyone who was sitting in the room at the table at the various meetings, including the presidents and consultants knew what they were doing,” said the source. “Nobody had launched a network and knew what it would take.”
The staffers cared deeply about the product. They worked hard. They left shops such as ESPN to be part of something ambitious and nimble. That it’s now ultimately left in shambles has to be heartbreaking for the producers, on-air staff, engineers and support staff who were there from the beginning.
That “media company” has been gutted. Months ago the conference tried to sell equity in its media rights. It wanted $500 million for a 10 percent stake. There were no takers. Now, the Pac-12 has laid off or furloughed the staff amid a pandemic. Worse yet, it doesn’t appear to have a plan.
Insiders tell me the Pac-12 Network hasn’t communicated with network employees sitting in limbo. Keep in mind, the furloughed staff aren’t drawing a salary while living in the Bay Area because the conference inexplicably planted the network there. There’s understandable angst, amplified recently when it was reported that Scott accelerated his own scheduled bonus and paid himself prior to the downsizing.
What exactly is the Pac-12 Network right now?
That’s become a question to ask. Because some believe there’s no coming back. But the conference is under contractual obligation to carry men’s and women’s basketball games on the network. It feels like the Pac-12 will have to bring some of the crew back at some point and try to produce some form of bare-bones broadcast. Maybe in conjunction with that Dec. 18-19 final weekend of college football? But what about the morning and evening football wrap-up shows?
Andrew Walker, a spokesperson for the conference, told me this week, “During the course of the season, Pac-12 Networks will be producing football content that will be distributed across the full breadth of Pac-12 Networks media platforms.”
No producers. No social media team. No writers left. Not currently anyway.
If a Saturday night wrap-up show is in the plans, that hasn’t yet been communicated to staff. If that “shoulder programming” happens, it might feature studio hosts Yogi Roth and Ashley Adamson. They remain on staff and both are widely regarded as talented. Too gifted, for sure, to be left hosting the conference’s webinars.
If the Pac-12 does produce some kind of wrap show it will air during the regular season without a football game as a lead in. Wrap your mind around that. After millions spent on a lease, equipment, consultants, talent, producers, studio sets, marketing and management salaries, the Pac-12 has almost nothing to show for it.
He caught heck for it. Deserved it, too. Because down deep, the commissioner had to know the whole thing was teetering. It was a money pit with disappointing distribution. The conference was also publicly bleeding money and about to launch that private-equity Hail Mary pass that fell incomplete.
Enter 9 a.m. kickoffs on Fox. Forever known now as, “Bloody Larrys.” ASU and USC will kick off on Nov. 7 at breakfast in an attempt to get some revenue and exposure that we all know could have more easily been won by simply investing in a great football conference and letting the world see it. The Pac-12 Networks were supposed to help do that, remember?
Scott is still out there defending the “media company” narrative. There’s virtually nothing left of the network. It has no games to air, few employees and a dim future.
The Pac-12 presidents and chancellors need to find a graceful exit from this model. It’s too costly and messy. The bulk of the operation needs to be outsourced. The conference media rights are up in 2024. The Pac-12 needs a partner or two that can absorb what’s left of the network and reconstruct it with improved and existing distribution. Basically, it needs someone who knows what it’s doing.
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