LA Times: Pac-12 collapse was Kalen DeBoer's fault

LOL, guess Nike Inc. didn't like the heat

Sourced straight outta Kliavkoff's mouth with "corroboration" from Oregon (likely Rob Mullens)

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The Apple deal was easy to mock once the number was leaked to the public. It didn’t matter that the deal included additional revenue based on subscriptions that could have put the payout to schools well above the Big 12 and the ACC, or that Apple believed in its ability to sell subscriptions to the Pac-12 content so much that it offered the schools an out after two years if they hadn’t reached the Big 12’s $31.7 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the offer told The Times.

The perception was that the deal was a failure far beyond the small annual distribution.

The offer did not guarantee teams any games on linear TV networks, although that was something that would have been under consideration.

Pac-12 football coaches were going to recruit kids without being able to tell them they would get to showcase their talent on the networks they grew up watching?

With the league clearly in crisis mode, the Big Ten began engaging again with Oregon and Washington, while the Big 12 was circling the Arizona schools and Utah.

Oregon and Washington were the key to keeping the league together, and the Apple deal had one very important Duck feather in its cap.

“Phil Knight loved it,” a source said.

The Nike CEO whose millions helped build Oregon into an upstart West Coast power saw the potential that Kliavkoff was pitching.

After two days of reports circulating that the Ducks and Huskies were pushing to leave for the Big Ten, there was a sudden turnabout. Reports from multiple outlets said the Pac-12 presidents were intending to meet on the morning of Aug. 4 to sign their grant of rights with a 10th school to be added later replacing Colorado.

Ten minutes before the meeting was to begin, however, Washington informed the Pac-12 that it was leaving for the Big Ten. The possibility of playing no games on the major linear networks was too tough of a sell for Washington football coach Kalen DeBoer, two sources told The Times.

“I give president [Ana Mari] Cauce and [athletic director] Jennifer Cohen a lot of credit, because these are not easy choices,” DeBoer told reporters after the move to the Big Ten was announced, according to the Seattle Times. “But just thinking years down the road, it came to a point where the resources that we need to be able to provide for our student-athletes … going to the Big Ten allowed for a lot of that.”

Once the Huskies left, the Ducks followed. The Arizona, Arizona State and Utah exodus to the Big 12 flowed naturally from there.

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1. The Apple subscriptions were pie in the sky bullshit and Pac-12 football would've been buried in anonymity. Apple's "out" was as much for itself as for the Pac-12 schools, who would've been stuck in no man's land, media rights wise, if they'd tried to exit the deal after two years

2. Phil Knight loved it. Sure he did. A Pac-12 season pass on Apple TV extra versus over the air TV on FOX, CBS and NBC. GTFOH with that bullshit.

3. So it was DeBoer who killed the deal according to two sources: Kliavkoff who's looking for a way to escape blame for the conference's demise; and Mullens who jumped at the chance to confirm blame on UW's successful coach (while not having to answer on whether he or Lanning - much less Knight- would've been fine with playing all games on Apple TV). In addition, the quote from DeBoer is a non-sequitur; His point is that UW will eventually make a lot more money in the Big Ten than a watered down Pac-12, not that Apple TV would be a black hole for media rights coverage (which it would be).

Piece of shit article by an LA Times writer who swallowed whatever bullshit his sources fed him because he was too clueless and/or lazy to know any better

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-08-16/pac-12-collapse-decisions-realignment-ucla-oregon