Uncle Utah’s Thoughts on Apple tv

It’s not that big of a deal. Let me explain.

1 – Remember, reporters get paid by clicks. They need to drum up controversy because that stirs feelings and feelings lead to action and if we get all angry, then we will click on all the articles and generate more clicks.

2 – The PAC-12 Networks sucked. No one watched us anyways. This idea that going to Apple tv is going to put us somewhere no one will see us…So? We’ve been just fine the last 10 years in the same situation. It is what it is.

3 – The money is the most important thing. Get the most money. If you don’t have the money, you will fall behind. Look, everyone is praising the Big 12, but why? It’s the funniest phenomenon. The Big 12 is losing their USC/UCLA in Texas and Oklahoma. They panicked, and added a bunch of “eh” G5 schools. They did what everyone wanted the PAC-12 to do, in raiding the Big 12. The problem with taking teams like that, is they don’t bring any money to the table.

When the Big 12 negotiations started, they were pounding their chests about 50 million dollars. They took 30. That is a 20 million dollar PER YEAR less than what they hoped for.

The worst thing the PAC-12 can do is add teams to add teams and then generate less money and p**s off Oregon and Washington. Get the most money you can. If that means adding SDSU and SMU, then do it. If it means not adding those teams and having 10 teams, then great. Just get enough money so Oregon and UW can save face to the world.

3 – The whole “exposure” thing is silly as well. Yeah, it would be nice to be on ABC or ESPN every week. But it’s not essential. Oregon and USC and Stanford recruited just fine being on the PAC-12 networks. We never got the benefit of the doubt before, we never had teams ranked higher than they should have been ranked. This won’t change anything.

The real exposure comes in being ranked and making the playoffs. Win games and PAC-12 teams will be ranked. That’s it. If Oregon, UW, Utah and ASU all have 10+ wins at the end of the year, they will all be top 15 teams.

And the playoffs will be easier than ever to get into. Side note: I hope the expanded playoff will even out talent a little bit more. Right now, if you want to win a national title, you go to Alabama or Ohio State. That’s it. And the recruiting rankings show this. Those two consistently have classes much better than the rest. BUT, now you can go to Oregon or Utah AND make the playoffs every year. Even if only 3-4 kids a year go somewhere else, that would be huge for parity.

In summary: Take the money. Being on ESPN or ABC is nice, but not as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be. As long as you make the playoffs, as long as you are ranked, as long as you can get kids to come visit your campus on recruiting visits and AS LONG AS YOU HAVE MONEY TO KEEP THE FACILITIES NICE, you will be fine.

The ideal deal would be this: 35-40 million per year from Apple. But, you then allow ESPN and/or CBS and/or NBC to rotate through the A, B and C games every week, just like before. Have it so you get another 5-10 million per school per year in this deal. That puts you up around 45-50 million per year.

That would be perfect. You still get games on the bigger networks, they only pay a fraction of what they paid in the past and you get Apple to overpay a little as they get established.

p.s. Could you imagine the hysterics that us getting 50 per year while the Big 12 gets 30? lol. It would be Christmas all over again.