More Positive Steps For The Pac-10
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 9, 2010 6:13 AM PST
16 comments
We have absolutely destroyed the Pac-10 conference over the past few years and for good reason. The Tom Hansen era was an embarrassment to the country's winningest conference. Poor TV contracts in all sports from basketball to football to non-revenue sports held the conference back for years. Impotency in the conference office regarding rules violations rightfully angered fans and the conference saw stagnation in a time when college sports took off and every other conference capitalized.
The hope was that new commissioner Larry Scott would change the conference for the better. Scott came to the conference from the WTA, where he was Chairman and CEO. His work with the WTA was extraordinary as purses, fan support and most important to the conference, TV contracts, were all improved. He had one major fault though (although some considered it a positive) in that he had never worked in collegiate athletics. He lacked the experience most would prefer, but before his first year is even over, he's already taken a huge step to make up for his lacking in that department.
Today, the Pac-10 announced the appointment of Kevin Weiberg to the position of Deputy Commissioner and COO. Weiberg is the former commissioner of the Big 12 oversaw the conference's massive growth from 1998 to 2007 when the conference's revenues doubled. He then moved on to the Big Ten Network, where he was the executive of the network. An impressive resume to say the least and a man who addresses Scott's biggest fault and the conference's biggest fault as well.
Success cannot be guaranteed for the conference as a result of this hire and any significant improvements won't come immediately because the current TV contracts have two more seasons on them in addition to the current one. It is encouraging to see the conference acknowledging its faults though and aggressive moves to bring in proven leaders is something that was noticeably absent in the Hansen era. It will take patience, but it appears as if the Pac-10 is primed for unprecedented growth.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Great News
Very, very, very glad to see the new commish begin to take positive steps (at least in personell hiring) to improving the conference revenue and exposure.
I know a Pac 10 Network pros/cons have been discussed and debated, but even with the current FSN deal running 2 more years – this looks like a sign that Scott knows what direction he wants to go……or I’m just reading to deep into the hiring.
Free Brandon Wood!
personnel hiring
acquiring key people to build the conference into a power…
sound familiar?
GO CRN! GO BRUINS!
Not sure about a Pac-10 channel myself
but please end this FSN and Versus thing as soon as possible.
Actually, versus coverage of NCAA football last season
was great. The year they televised the BYU game they were horrible, but they clearly made some capital investments before last year and did a much better job. I thought their broadcasts were much, much better than Fox Sports.
by silverlakebruin on Feb 9, 2010 9:04 AM PST up reply actions
Just thinking the same thing
Their HD feed was a million times better than Fox last year.
by littlebrother on Feb 9, 2010 10:10 AM PST up reply actions
Not sure if a Pac 10 channel will be any better quality wise then FSN
….at least initially. I am fairly sure that the conference won’t dedicate the resources/capital necessary to provide espn/abc/nbc/cbs type quality broadcasts so my guess is that it will be something closer to the FSN quality though. The point of the network isn’t necessarily to improve broadcast quality as it is to increase revenue through membership, advertising, etc. Has anyone watched the Big Ten network and been blown away by their broadcast quality?
Free Brandon Wood!
I think one point of a conference network
Is to have an outlet for all the games that don’t get major national coverage, so you can get the best of both worlds — as many ESPN and national network super-exposure games as possible, with the rest still being available to interested viewers (and as a 24 hour option for sports junkies). That way you don’t have to worry about some games being ignored.
Exciting news
Since Scott’s hiring, I was wondering when we would hear some big news. This exciting and gives us an idea of what direction they’re headed.
Scott vs Hansen
Any idea how Scott is going to be with the issue of complaince and teams following NCAA rules?
Hansen and Pete Dalis always reminded me of each other….
Nice Read
sounds like a huge step in the right direction…I also have to agree that FSN needs help with their coverage…
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
Jon Wilner from the SJ Merc caught up with Scott and asked some Q's
Brief highlights:
As for expanding the tourney to 96 teams:
"I’d be concerned long-term about the devaluation of the tournament, making it more of a commodity that’s too easy to qualify for….
On the Pac-10 Network:
"We’re in an exploratory stage of evaluating our media rights. My top priority when I was hired was to explore all available options to expand our revenue through television. That has the utmost strategic importance."
About MAYBE looking into expanding the Pac-10:
"We’re looking at it very seriously. It wasn’t something identified for me by the presidents when I took the job. But it’s very natural as you look at the value of the conference from a media standpoint. If we were ever going to look at expansion, this would be the logical time" (because negotiations for a new TV deal will begin next year).
I’m personally against expansion, but we’ll have to see what happens.
Accountability
With traditional “safe harbor” laws evaporating in the post-Enron world, it is an absolute travesty that Tom Hansen and his antiquated (and I’m being very kind) marketing strategies hung like a 400# albatross on the neck of the Pac-10 for so long. His regime should have known by the mid-90s that ESPNs NCAA basketball and football packages with other conferences would not only result in a loss of millions (or billions) of dollars to the schools of the Pac-10, but would make recruiting the top athletes in all sports even more difficult when a generation of kids grew up knowing that if they played a sport in the Big 10, SEC, Big 12, ACC or the Big East they would have the potential for being televised regionally and nationally almost weekly. I don’t even want to begin to discuss the bowl tie-ins that Hansen not only blew, but resulted in unevenly matched games for most Pac-10 teams. And lest we forget the SPTRs . . . why wasn’t anyone accountable?
And to be more specific
why hasn’t there been even one hint of a whisper that just$c* is going to be held accountable for anything? It’s very existence is a violation.
Fox...
do you need to go to apostrophe school again? :)
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
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