The Pac-10 “Missed It By That Much”

 Send This Story To A Friend

Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal has provided a fresh account today of just how the Big 12 managed to stay together… and how close the league came to actually breaking apart.

For those who just read my last piece and still came away saying, “Aw, nothing was going to happen,” you might want to check out this report from Michael Smith and John Ourand.  (You might have to pay to register.)

Some of the highlights:


“(Big 12 Commissioner Dan) Beebe reserved a room in a Dallas/Fort Worth Hyatt, where he met with key executives from the networks.  Burke Magnus and David Brown represented ESPN.  Jon Heidtke was there from FSN Southwest, while his boss, FSN President Randy Freer, was on a speakerphone.

“One executive said it was the most tension-filled room he’d ever been in.  School officials, who were constantly in contact by phone, wanted assurances that their athletic departments would be well-compensated for spurning offers from the Pac-10.

“Network executives felt caught in the middle because they have broadcast deals with both conferences.  They wanted to help a longtime partner in the Big 12 stay together, but they also were being pressured by the Pac-10 to support its plan to expand to a 16-team super conference.  And seismic conference realignment hung in the balance.”


For those who thought travel would be a big sticking point in the Pac-16′s plan, think again.  Instead, Chris Plonsky — the women’s athletic director at Texas — said UT’s work its own channel/network played a large role in the school’s decision to stay in the Big 12.

In fact, the Sports Business Journal writes, “if Texas had not been two-plus years down the road to starting its own network, the Longhorns could very well be a member of the Pac-16 Conference today.”

So you might say that the Larry Scott and the Pac-10 “missed it by that much.”