Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury news has been on the forefront of college football topics regarding the Pac-12 and west coast. He was able to speak with commissioner Larry Scott and was able to pull out some more nuggets about the Pac-12 television deal and the expected plan of a Pac-12 network.
First off is the money, it is going to $3 billion contract for 12 years which comes out to an average of $20.8 million per school per year. As Wilner points out, this is an average and the actually money earned per school start around $15 million and increase each year topping out at $25 million in the final year. This escalator cause really helps Utah who will not be a full revenue earning member until 2014-2015 season, plus the money will help the Colorado Buffaloes have enough money and not have to worry about lack of funds the state of Colorado when the next coach is on the chopping block.
An announcement is coming within 60 days and that is expected to be about the Pac-12 network. There were two options mentioned on the Pac-12 channel, the first being the league starts its own channel which could cost around $100 million to start, or take over and rebrand another channel, and an example given is Fox College Sports. Depending how the league-owned network is formed could determine the distribution of the network, and one way the league plans on combating that is to allow the Pac-12 network to have first pick of football games two times a year.
This television deal was not expected to be made until a few weeks from now, but with the NHL partnering with Comcast it forced ESPN to become serious in the Pac-12 media rights.