Pac-12 Has Better Schools, Better Markets Than The Big 12

Pac-12 Conference commissioner George Kliavkoff speaks at Pac-12 NCAA college football media day Friday, July 29, 2022, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

There has been a lot of panic from Pac-12 fans. There has been a lot cheering out of Big 12 fans.

Nobody really knows what to believe until the Pac-12 media rights deal becomes official.

John Canzano says even though the Pac-12 lost the Los Angeles market, they still have better markets then the Big 12 and will get a deal similar or better then the Big 12.

“Better schools, better markets, better universities and what not. And it’s true. I do think the Pac 12 has better markets even without LA,” Canzano said this week on 750 The Game. “When you look at the whole of the markets. Big 12 has got a bunch of markets that are mix and match and pieced together.”

Big 12 fans have been very confident that they will be aggressive and will acquire some of the Pac-12 schools because the Big 12 media rights deal will blow the Pac-12 out of the water, but Canzano says the fans don’t even know what to look at when it comes to media rights.

“These are supposed to be people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to sports. They’re talking about ratings. The television executives will tell you, ratings don’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Houston probably doesn’t get good ratings in the Houston market. It matters that they are in the Houston market. SMU doesn’t have great ratings in Dallas. It doesn’t matter. They are in Dallas.”

“UCLA didn’t get good ratings in LA. But why did the Big 10 want UCLA? Because it was in LA.”

Canzano believes the Pac-12 will invite two schools that will help with the media rights deal because of where they are located.

“I do think the Pac-12 will go to San Diego State and it will go to SMU and will invite them in. It puts 16 million television households that would be back in the Pac-12. It sort of helps relieve [the loss of the LA market]. I believe 3.6 million households in Dallas and 2.1 million in San Diego county, so you’re talking about almost 5 million households. Guess what? It was 5.7 million households that they lost when the LA market went away.”

Because of the additions of SDSU and SMU, Canzano thinks it will help alleviate some of the value lost when the media rights deal is done.

“Does it (SDSU and SMU) bring the same value as the LA markets? No. Everyone thought the Pac-12 would get around $500 million for it’s media rights if the LA schools were involved in it. So you take away two schools, and even if you add nothing, I still think they will be at about $320 million for 10 schools. If you add Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego in to the package, I think you might be looking at somewhere around $33 million a school. I think they could beat the Big 12 with that package.”

It remains to be seen what the final numbers are. But bragging rights are on the line.

Listen to Canzano’s full comments from Wednesday’s radio show right here.