June 10th: What You Missed
Jun 10, 2010, 4:28 PM | Updated: Apr 4, 2011, 7:55 pm
THE LEAD:
The college sports landscape is in turmoil, and the Pac-10 is right in the thick of things. It’s already official that the University of Colorado will join the conference and rumors are that Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will also flee the Big-12 for the Pac-10. If it does indeed become the Pac-16, the conference would boast six of the top 14 media markets and eight of the top 22. That would make a television network for the conference, a model similar to the highly profitable Big-10 network, financially lucrative.
Kevin is excited at the prospects for an expanded Pac-10 and what that could mean for the finances and recruiting of schools in the Pacific Northwest.
It means a lot of dough. … Can you imagine having a 16 team mega-conference and what that would mean to, let’s say a Washington State? $20-22 million per team per year. That’s if they get their own network and I assume they will. If you’ve got the mega 16-team conference you’re going to have your own network just like the Big-10. That would be huge.
On a Lighter Note:
The newest member of the Pac-10 brings with it a football coach, Dan Hawkins, who people may know him best for going on a rant a few years ago about Division I football. In a radio interview he referenced a letter that a player’s mother wrote to him saying he wasn’t giving the team enough time off from practice.
With Oklahoma State rumored to be on the verge of joining the Pac-10, we should also reaquaint ourselves with their football coach Mike Gundy, who had some stern words for a reporter who criticized the toughness of one of his players.
In Other News:
The NCAA’s announced its sanctions against the USC football program today. The Trojans will be banned from participating in postseason play for the next two seasons and its 2004 National Championship will be forfeited. The program will also lose scholarships and remain on probation for the next four years.
Pete Carroll responded to the sanctions today on his Twitter account and Youtube page, saying he was shocked and angered by the NCAA’s decision.
“I never thought it would come to this. … I never thought there were any facts that supported these significant sanctions that have come forth. The primary issue throughout the process was did the university know. The university didn’t know, we didn’t know. … The agenda of the NCAA infractions committee took them beyond the facts.”
See his entire reaction below:
