Where could Utah Utes end up when realignment music stops playing?

About 24 several hours right after the shockwaves from experiences about USC and UCLA ditching the Pac-12 Conference for greener (as in dollars) pastures of the Major Ten, there are continue to a lot more issues than answers when it comes to the long run of college athletics.

The only genuine consensus amid these masking, or involved in, this most current round of realignment is, it is not over however.

That could be great news, or unsettling news, for packages like Utah, which joined the Pac-12 in 2011.

Just a couple months back, the university amended coach Kyle Whittingham’s deal, guaranteeing him much more income as portion of his agreement that runs by way of 2027.

In which is that income likely to occur from now? The Pac-12, which is negotiating a new media rights deal, is, of class, in a substantially weaker situation than it was right before Thursday with the departure of the two Los Angeles educational facilities. 

The Pac-12 issued a assertion Friday: “The Pac-12 Board of Directors fulfilled this early morning and licensed the meeting to check out all expansion solutions. The 10 university presidents and chancellors remain dedicated to a shared mission of educational and athletic excellence on behalf of our college student-athletes.”

Some are crafting the Pac-12’s obituary. But as we figured out from the Big 12 soon after it shed Texas and Oklahoma to the Southeastern Convention a 12 months in the past, that may be premature.

Or possibly not.

What is heading to come about to Utah and the remaining Pac-12 colleges, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Oregon Condition, Washington Condition, Arizona Point out, Arizona and Colorado?

“The prevailing idea is that Oregon and Washington would really like to tailgate the Los Angeles universities and adhere to them into the Huge Ten. But I’m not certain possibly university delivers ample worth to make splitting the Fox tv earnings with two more companions a no-brainer,” wrote Pac-12 insider John Canzano, who’s primarily based in Portland. “Be certain, the finish of the Pac-12 as we know it, is about television money.

“Fox coveted the Los Angeles television marketplace and aimed to acquire it by preying on the greatest vulnerability of the Pac-12 — its awful Television deal. The Pac-12’s woeful media legal rights deal, negotiated by former commissioner Larry Scott, continues to haunt the conference. In the previous fiscal calendar year, every Pac-12 member been given $21 million significantly less in distributions than Huge Ten universities did. That variance will swell to a lot more than $50 million a calendar year, for each university, by 2024.”

Jon Wilner, writer of the Pac-12 Hotline, broke the story about USC and UCLA Thursday. Among the the numerous nuggets he presented: “Reminder that Significant 10 growth in ’22 was totally pushed by Fox, just as SEC expansion in ’21 was entirely pushed by ESPN. They are the grandmasters contacting the shots at the rear of the scenes.”

It’s no magic formula that the Pac-12 has been in a slump for very some time, on and off the industry. Its relevance on a national level has been diminished. The league has not had a workforce in the College Soccer Playoff given that 2016. Meanwhile, USC and UCLA have found how the Major 10 and the SEC have increased their coffers noticeably. 

“Both Pac-12 educational facilities — determined by the ‘drastic difference’ in the league’s media rights income — originally approached the Big 10 about becoming a member of, resources said,” wrote Brett McMurphy of actionnetwork.com. “Negotiations became really serious in the previous handful of months, a resource claimed. When a number of logistics are however to be established, USC and UCLA would double their media rights earnings in the Massive 10 in comparison to the Pac-12. The Major Ten is at this time negotiating its new media legal rights offer, but the addition of the Los Angeles sector would boost these ‘substantially,’ a resource explained. Some estimates have the Huge Ten’s new offer truly worth $100 million annually for each college.”

The hole involving the Big 10/SEC and the other Electric power Five leagues have widened. For now, it seems that we have a Ability Two. 

Some, like The Athletic’s Andy Staples, believes that 20-staff super conferences may be inescapable.

“At this point, absolutely nothing sounds ridiculous. In reality, the only matter that seems extremely hard is school football’s composition bearing any semblance in 2030 to the sport at the switch of the century. Texas and Oklahoma deciding very last yr to shift to the SEC shook the floor. USC and UCLA determining to move to the Significant Ten opened the hole as a result of the center of the earth. There is no base. Everything you can imagine feels probable at this position,” Staples wrote. “That incorporates college football’s variation of a tremendous league. Last calendar year, when global soccer clubs actually tried out to variety these kinds of a league and after Texas and Oklahoma announced their intentions, I took cracks at figuring out which programs would populate a hypothetical school soccer tremendous league. But that strategy does not come to feel so hypothetical now.”

What may those super conferences seem like, if they extend to 20 systems?

For the Big 10, Staples only added faculties that are customers of the Affiliation of American Universities. Utah is an AAU college, and the Utes are involved in Staples’ Large Ten super league, along with other newcomers — USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington and Notre Dame. 

The Big 12, which additional 4 new members, such as BYU, last year, is expected to be proactive in this spherical of realignment as very well. 

“The Big 12, with recently named commissioner Brett Yormark, strategies to go on the offensive and request more new users, resources explained,” McMurphy wrote. “The Large 12 could add Arizona, Arizona Point out, Utah and Colorado alongside with new members BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to get to 16 teams immediately after OU and Texas depart for the SEC, a resource mentioned. 

“Other Large 12 resources prefer Washington and Oregon as portion of the Large 12. ‘The Significant 12 has never ever been intense (in meeting realignment), but they really should get hold of all those 4 Pac-12 schools and tell them ‘come on board mainly because there is absolutely nothing left’ in the Pac-12,’ a supply explained. Additional a different resource: ‘We’re not sitting down back this time. That killed us in the past. We’re looking to improve our conference.’ There is some hope amid Pac-12 sources that the league will insert universities from the Massive 12 or probably even some style of merger involving the leagues. Whichever transpires, a single source summed up the future of conference realignment very best: ‘Buckle up, due to the fact this is heading to be a single helluva journey.’”

The Pac-12 is striving to figure out how to commence from here following getting blindsided by USC and UCLA. 

In accordance to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Pac-12 presidents and athletic directors experienced an crisis simply call Thursday night. “Moving forward, the league is prioritizing who is ‘in’ and can be counted on to recalibrate the league, which is on the cusp of a Television set negotiation,” Thamel wrote. 

“In the upcoming 72 hours, the major focus of the Pac-12 has to be retaining Oregon/Washington and retaining the Major 12 from poaching Utah/Colorado and ASU/Arizona,” Canzano wrote. “Beyond that, it wants to get proactive. Would ESPN — or a different media partner — swoop in with a worthwhile media offer aimed at keeping what is remaining of the Pac-12 jointly? ESPN requirements programming in the western element of the region. The Pac-12 wants an speedy infusion of income to market its latest members on sticking close to. Together people strains, I surprise if some sort of Pac-12/Massive-12 merger might materialize, generating a 3rd super meeting with 20+ teams and multiple time zones for ESPN. It feels like the most feasible route to relevancy.”

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News