Starting to get better sleep??

It’s part of his job (see quote from him below). He may not be the decision maker, but he’s at least decision support and influencer.

The summer of 2022 started off really mild and quickly got out of hand when USC and UCLA announced they were going to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. As stressed as fans have been about the Utes’ future, Harlan was right there with them trying to navigate the options of what to do next.

“I think as we’ve gone through this process it certainly has taken it’s twists and turns,” Harlan said. “From the moment it happened trying to decide foremost the best path for Utah, which is always the first thing the President and I think about.”

Do you give Chris Hill credit for getting us into the Pac-12? The media and many fans do. If Hill played a role in getting us into the Pac-12, then it is certainly part of Harlan’s job to work on current and future realignment scenarios, whether that means remaining in the Pac-12 or being part of the negotiations to move to another conference.

How do you feel about the PAC trending toward an ivy league west?  Deemphasizing sports and concentrating on academics?

I keep tearing your posts apart, but it’s because you buy into the cougarboard bulls**t. 

The Big 12 deal, while the third best, isn’t good. It’s half of what the B1G gets. That’s not good and not sustainable. 

You say you don’t want Utah to end up with the have nots then say you want them to joint the Big 12. The Big 12 is literally a conference of have nots. 

Oregon, UW, Stanford, Cal, ASU, AU, Colorado and Utah are better programs than any other Big 12 team. 

Here is reality: college football is transitioning to something else. We don’t know what it is yet. There’s a good chance that it’s two conferences and a developmental league for the NFL. 

There’s a good chance the money dries up in 2030 and cable dies and UCLA, USC, TX and Oklahoma go and rejoin/create a league w/P10 and ACC teams. 

There’s zero shot the Big12 is anything in 2030. 

As I’ve been saying for months, the best thing you can do is stay in the P10 and ride out the storm and set yourself up to push for the B1G in 2028 or welcome back USC/UCLA and potentially Texas and Oklahoma. 

But the B12? There’s nothing there. Bad schools, bad tv contract, bad education, bad locations. 

Maybe. Objectively, there isn’t multiple networks trying to outbid each other for a tv deal for the Pac. I suspect a lot of that has to do with the GOR and the fact that OR/Wash want to move their programs to the B10 once they come knocking.

Objectively B12 is much more stable at the moment.

I LOVE being in the Pac, but I’m realistic/logical. I just want Utah to be setup for future successes.

Yeah def want to think like that. But objectively, as of right now, B12 has a really good tv deal. Pac has nothing. Them’s just the facts. Pac leadership really hasn’t shown much competency of late so hard to trust. How can you be caught totally unaware in re USC/UCLA? How can tv negotiations have dragged out so long? I can understand if it was due to multiple network bidders – but that isn’t the case. And comments like ‘I’m glad we didn’t sign anything because Deion going to CO makes the conference so much more valuable’ is clown speak, let’s be honest. If GK gets it done, I’ll happily eat crow. But until it happens, I’m going to be on edge.

2 things.

1st, yes, streaming services are a change. It’s different then what we have been used to with public TV and now cable and satellite. However I’m old enough to remember when sports started to move to cable and satellite, my dad HATED it and said it would hurt sports because people won’t have access or pay for it and so stop watching. Sound familiar?

Do we know if streaming services will work for sports? No but I’m not scared or worried.

2nd, as I said in my first point, streaming is different and it’s reasonable to assume that the contract negotiations are a well. This means more time for things to get negotiated and then drawn up, as there really hasn’t been a precedence to use for this contract. So would I like it to be done, yes but like I said, I’m not scared or worried there not done yet.

As already stated don’t be afraid of change. As far as why it’s taking so long, Amazon and Apple are new to this territory and are starting from the ground up. Fox and ESPN do this regularly and everything is already In place for them so it takes no time. The people making the decisions don’t seem to be worried, so why should you?

Next, don’t think the big 12 are going to be in a better spot. The time slots they signed on for are directly competing with the SEC and BIG. That’s why Yormark is so desperate to get west coast teams into the big 12. Fox and Disney are going to showcase the SEC and BIG and not the big 12. The big 12 will be relegated to ESPN2, ESPNU, FS1, and ESPN+. The Pac 12 with the west coast market will get at least one game on ESPN per week and will probably be on ABC just as much, if not more than the big 12. Their deal sucks. Quit buying big propaganda. It’s complete horse s**t.