Bill Oram: If there is a media rights deal in place, the Pac-12 needs to announce it so everyone can move on

Published Jul. 21, 2023, 5:51 p.m.
By Bill Oram
Did George Kliavkoff show his hand on Friday when it comes to a media rights deal for the Pac-12?
“We’re not announcing a deal on purpose today because I want the focus to be on football,” the conference’s commissioner said.
That’s the only reason a new deal wasn’t being announced at Friday’s football media day? Not because there isn’t one or it is still being negotiated?
It seemed that the commissioner was suggesting the long-awaited deal was actually in place.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s James Crepea asked that question, but all of us in the room were wondering it, too.
“I think you’re reading too much into that,” Kliavkoff replied.
For some fans, the phrase “media rights deal” might be a cue to take a nap.
It’s the kind of inside baseball — um, football — thing that fans normally shouldn’t have to concern themselves with. But in the modern college landscape, a sizable portion of the media rights pie is essential to survival.
And a year after USC and UCLA dealt a crippling blow to the Pac-12 by announcing their intentions to bolt for the Big Ten, shoring up a new contract to replace the one that expires after this year is the one thing that would stabilize the Conference of Champions.
It would open the door to a grant of rights to ward off conferences trying to poach any of the 10 remaining schools. It would provide a foundation for expansion.
Kliavkoff, talking about the process for the first time since December, says it’s close. An announcement will be made in the “near future.”
“Getting the right deal has always been more important to our board and to the conference than getting the expeditious one,” Kliavkoff said.
The Pac-12 needs to move beyond this saga. For now, it hangs over its institutions, fueling speculation of further decampments and, frankly, distracting from the football Kliavkoff so badly wanted to be the focus on Friday.
That was never going to be without clarity on media rights.
Is it ESPN? Fox? Could they go streaming only? And how much will member schools be getting paid to stick around?
“The longer we wait for a media deal, the better our options get,” said Kliavkoff, taking a page from Joe Cronin’s negotiating handbook.
In the meantime, Kliavkoff has a lot to sell about football in his conference.
“The Pac-12 is the strongest it has been in decades,” Kliavkoff said.
The conference has, “the most elite group of quarterbacks of any conference in the country,” he added and “boasts elite teams capable of competing for the CFP.”
He’s right on all fronts. The Pac-12 has the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and several other preseason challengers. Six of its teams finished last season in the CFP Top 25. Deion Sanders — who now seems to be universally referred to as “Coach Prime” on all references, even by the commissioner — lends a legitimate buzz to the proceedings, even though he was absent on Friday.
“We have a lot of reasons to feel optimistic about the upcoming season of Pac-12 football,” Kliavkoff said.
Sure, but how are we going to watch it in the years beyond this one?
Other notes from Pac-12 media day in Las Vegas …
Thirty-six media members voted for four different schools when predicting the Pac-12 champion. None of those votes were for Oregon State.
I think that will end up looking silly. The Beavers should end up being good enough that they will at least be in the mix.
The Beavers, picked to finish fifth, have flaws. Who doesn’t? They didn’t really address their limitations at wide receiver and they will need young replacements to step up to replace program pillars Jaydon Grant and Rejzohn Wright.
But the Beavers have the most favorable schedule in the conference, playing Utah, UCLA and Washington at home and avoiding preseason favorite USC entirely — at least until the Pac-12 title game. The Beavers return virtually all their key pieces on offense, with D.J. Uiagalelei likely starting at quarterback.
Uiagalelei is flying under the radar in a conference with USC’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix at Oregon, but he has a chance to transform the Beavers.
The Clemson transfer struggled in the spring as he adapted to a new system, but I suspect that talent will eventually win out and he will start over incumbent Ben Gulbranson and freshman Aidan Chiles. Does all that add up to the Beavers being my pick to win the conference?
I’m not ready to go that far. But if USC, Utah, Oregon and Washington all beat each other up like they have in past years, there is a real chance for the Beavers to slip through to the Pac-12 title game and earn a trip back here to Vegas.
Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith is a passionate fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. So I asked him if Uiagalelei gets special treatment after being drafted in the 20th round of the MLB draft by L.A.
“We’ll see what kind of connections he can line up,” Smith joked.
To understand how important Bo Nix and Dan Lanning have become to each other over the past year, take this from Lanning.
“Bo is not just our quarterback,” Lanning said. “He’s my babysitter.”
Wouldn’t that be a creative approach to NIL …
Lanning described walking into his house recently while his wife Sauphia was out and finding Nix in his living room.
“I’m like, ‘What are you up to,’” Lanning said. “He goes, ‘The boys just finished basketball practice, they’re getting ready for bed.’”
Nix said he and his wife, Izzy, have also watched Lanning’s sons when he and Sauphia are out of town.
Maybe a small thing, but, Nix said, “That’s part of the connection we talk about. Coach Lanning really puts an emphasis on that. We want to be the most connected team possible.”
Lanning and Nix might share the most important bond in football in the state of Oregon.
Both transplants from the SEC, the defensive-minded Lanning needed a quarterback he could trust as a first-year head coach.
The babysitting just feels like a continuation of that trust.
“It’s more than just football,” Lanning said. “He’s a member of the family.”
Nix’s decision to return to Oregon for a fifth college season is the defining storyline of the Ducks’ season.
It gets lost in the buzz about Williams and Penix, the first- and second-team QBs on the preseason all-conference teams, but Nix was well-positioned for an invitation to the Heisman ceremony in late November before suffering an ankle injury.
After that moment Nix wasn’t the same and the Ducks lost two of their final three games, knocking themselves out of a late push for the College Football Playoff.
Nix might be the best leader in the Pac-12 and it is wild to think that it has been five years since he beat Oregon as a true freshman starting at Auburn. It all gives him a really unique perspective.
Media days are always a circus. And this year the Pac-12 added things like a ping pong table and cornhole boards to their Resorts World staging area to offer a diversion for athletes during downtime and to boost the social media content.
But there is still serious work to be done.
To that point: If the between-the-legs pickleball shot I saw him hit in the third floor ballroom on Friday is any indication, Utah quarterback Cam Rising’s ACL will be just fine.