No matter what some national media types may try to tell folks when it comes to the Big 12 vs the Pac 12, the Big 12 has a few things going for it that the Pac 12 doesn’t and no matter of media carrying the water for the Pac 12 can change the reality of those things. The Pac 12 schools know it and more importantly the TV networks and broadcast partners know it. That’s why you’re seeing the Pac 12 media freaking out about stories saying they’ll only get 25 million or so going forward. So. Here’s the deal. Here’s what the Big 12 has that the Pac 12 doesn’t….
- Big 12 schools, no matter their location, deliver large markets through their television footprint. The Pac 12 schools, even in bigger TV markets don’t deliver eyeballs. Texas Tech gets the Big 12 in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. Plus San Antone and Austin. Oklahoma State gets into the Metroplex as well and Oklahoma City. Going forward, BYU owns Salt Lake City and then you’ve got Cincy and Florida as well as whatever Houston gives you in Houston in addition to what Texas Tech delivers. If Stanford and Cal delivered the Bay Area, they’d be in the Big 10 right now. Same for Oregon and Washington. They have markets they don’t deliver. Folks in Big 12 country care more about sports and they watch. The networks know it.
- The Big 12 schools commit to facilities and being relevant. Look at Texas Tech’s 200 million dollar expansion. Not of the stadium, but of an end zone. Look at what OSU has done. Even Iowa State, bless their hearts, have improved old Jack Trice Stadium. Baylor. New stadium. TCU… well they do what they can, but they’ve spent money. Most Pac 12 schools suckled at the teet of USC and UCLA and hoped the honey would keep flowing. They also thought the Big 10 thought like them. They were wrong.
- The Big 12 has a new commissioner grounded in reality and cut-throat business. The Pac 12 has a passenger on a bus for a commissioner who, while seemingly a good guy, has no control and no juice, just like Larry Scott before him. The Big 12 hired a gunslinger. A deal maker. The Pac 12 is hoping for a life-line. The Big 12 is now aggressive. The Pac 12 is chasing butterflies and rainbows, all the while thinking 1957 will return and everything will be OK.
As the Pac 12 Media Days play out for the last time, I’m reminded of the final days of the SWC. I was there. I saw how the schools where acting moving forward into a new Big 12 and I saw how the desperate, confused and angry schools were acting being left behind because they hadn’t invested into college athletics the way they needed to. I see the same thing out West today. I know how it ends.
Welcome to the Big 12, ____, _____, ____, _____.
Y’all fill in the blanks when you get serious about moving forward, Pac 12 friends!
Hyatt
