Pac 12 Cooler

So we are about to go onto the market for our media rights. They are bundled together. What is it that a media company would exactly be getting with these rights? Well, in addition to getting 6 extra games every year over every other conference, you would be getting the best academics, Olympic sports, and a footprint that has no rival. So without further adieu, here are the big ideas.

What kind of media?

I have no doubt that Larry Scott gets it. But just getting it doesn’t mean that you have examined all the angles. Of course we are selling the television broadcasting rights, but there are other rights too. We need to get Google and Apple (both in our footprint) to bid on the mobile rights. Want an app for your iPad that lets you watch games, highlights, and more? Apple should be all over that exclusivity. Ah, but there is Google with their Android trying to get every advantage it can over Apple, which had the first mover advantage. Why not get the Pac12 on the Android? Talk about an iPad Killer. Even the WebOS, owned by HP (also in our footprint) could make a bid. And why not? HP certainly has enough money that making a bid would only be a small dent.

But it doesn’t stop there. There are the rights for gaming devices. Microsoft and Nintendo America are both headquartered in our footprint as well. They are both trying to be connected and allow the gamer to download new content to their gaming systems. Why not the Pac12 too? We need to be the first conference to bring content to new devices. We need to be ahead of the curve.

Where is our market?

We are in a unique position because we can really expand overseas. This is an idea that has been mentioned before, but I feel there is more to it. It’s about more than just getting the games on television in new markets. If you really want to create fans, you need to get the locals to care. They need their own teams to root for. Teams need a second home overseas. Every year teams play a smaller school to make money. Those schools would LOVE to expand their market too. We can be getting more money if we made them neutral site games. What if every year there was the International Game for each team? Imagine that Washington played a game in Vancouver, British Columbia every year. Or to expand that:

·         Washington plays in Vancouver

·         Washington State plays in Calgary

·         Oregon plays in Sydney

·         Oregon State plays in Melbourne

·         California plays in Beijing

·         Stanford plays in Shanghai

·         UCLA plays in Osaka

·         Southern California plays in Tokyo

·         Utah plays in Wellington

·         Colorado plays in Aukland

·         Arizona plays in Mexico City

·         Arizona State plays in Guadalajara

You could easily see that western Canada, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Mexico would all be very interested in their adopted teams within a decade. This goes far beyond just having the games on television. Sure our fans with season tickets would be complaining. Then again, none of these places are bad vacation spots and they all would be enticing to their current fans and a big draw for prospective student athletes. Play two basketball games, a baseball series, and other events to fill out the year and really get the cities interested in their new teams.

Go beyond sister cities

The previous concept was really just taking the “sister city” idea to new levels. It makes fans where there were none and could potentially double the audience of the Pac12. But wait, there’s more. We can also make our teams hated too. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Well, actually it does. USC has Notre Dame to draw attention from across the country. Utah has BYU, Colorado has Colorado State, but those are obviously much closer. Why can’t Washington State start playing Idaho again every year? Arizona could play New Mexico. Stanford and Northwestern signed onto a small series, why not make it a yearly battle? If you want to build our national appeal, make it so that the rest of the country has no choice but to think about our teams.

And if you want to get them to think about us, you don’t even necessarily need to go across country to build interest. All you need to do is do something different and do it better. And we have our own rivalries already. Why not make the natural rivals both wear their home uniforms for their rivalry games? USC and UCLA did it a couple years ago and it was beautiful. Every natural pair has contrasting colors, so why not take advantage of it? Give the country something to talk about.

Give them something unique, new, and valuable

Football is not our only asset. One thing that is unique about our conference is that we have the best Olympic sports around. Take advantage of it! Tell Comcast/NBC that they could have their own Olympics in the off years. They would be all over that. Set up a Pac12 Olympics for both Summer and Winter sports. Utah and Colorado bring great ski teams, which shouldn’t be overlooked. Fox would love to counter NBC with their own Olympics that they get free as part of a football deal. Put it on network television and let it be the star for two weeks just like the real Olympics. Why not? It is incredibly marketable even outside of our own region.

Oh, but why stop there? Why not expand to do an X-games style event as well? This really does belong in the Pac12, so use it. Athletic budgets are tight, but look at the big picture, the long term view. All these events only build what it means to be a member of the Pac12 and it builds the names of our Universities. Through in our own Knowledge Bowl game show, which do wonderfully on network television. Better yet, think of all the types of shows we can bring. USC has a great television program, let them develop shows. Stanford professors could give lectures. Oregon’s journalism department can be a nightly news source. Oregon’s cheerleaders could easily have their own show for that matter. The Optical Science Center at Arizona is world-class and they could team up with the Astronomy department that built a Mars rover to produce a NOVA-like program. Team Mythbusters up with Cal-Berkeley for some big myths. The Pac12 has excellent resources, we should use them to their fullest.

Putting it all together

Although it makes a lot of sense to sell our media rights to a large network, we need to take a really close look at our assets. We own so much already that maybe we should do our own calculations about starting our own media empire. Think of the Pac12 Conference as an entertainment company. There are plenty of advantages to going it by ourselves. The world is changing and getting our media out to everybody is no longer very hard. The students could all benefit from learning to produce a weekly television show, broadcasting in the new media environment, or anything else that would come from empowering our Universities to break free and take the empires that they have all created already to expand beyond just 12 football game a year, or whatever networks are bidding on right now.

All major sports leagues now have their own channels. Baseball has a successful MLB.tv app. We have far more diversity of entertaining assets, far more incredible minds to put towards this, and the chance to really make a splash in the new media environment. Why not think outside the box and instead of going for $300 million, go $38 billion (Comcast/NBC’s annual revenue). That is more than 100x the potential. We could use the internet, gaming systems, and mobile devices to go beyond this too. There is no reason why we couldn’t. I know that Larry Scott is ambitious, so why not take it to the fullest and not just to the highest bidder that still thinks inside their old-media box with already-too-full channels?

Personal note for only Larry Scott to read

Larry Scott, if you are reading this and you want to make a media empire, but don’t know where to start, I would love to talk to you in person. I have a Master’s degree from a Pac12 school, I have lived all over the region, and I own an entertainment/media company that is going to take advantage of the shifting market of new media. I also work for a large technology company as an engineer for my day job. I’m 25 and I understand what could be, not what has been. I live the new media world. Fly me down to Walnut Creek and we can talk. You can email me at Pac12Cooler@gmail.com.