They turned them down bcos they are small market teams, and are not accretive to the TV contracts. Corvallis and teh Paloose are not exactly booming metro areas.
In answer to your earlier question, teh P12 will close up shop. Doesn’t matter what the remaining P2 want to do. The leaving 10 will just sue in California – where the Pac is registered – state court to pay off the bills and turn out the lights, and drag out the proceedings for months if need be. The remaining 2 won’t be able to remain in limbo while the courts fight it out. And the remaining 2 certainly won’t want to accept any contingent liabilities on the books.
btw: Wazzou has already filed in a local Washington court for control. But the leaving 10 can sue in a Ca where a local judge would not take kindly to a Wash judge telling her what to do with a CA-registered entity. Or, with dueling state court judges, move it to federal court. Months become years.
That’s not my understanding of the facts. As the Pac-12 has disclosed in prior litigation (https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-520/157870/20201015171528752_Alston%20Petition%20for%20Cert.pdf),
it is an unincorporated association - and thus presumably has the citizenship of each of its members, rather than being just a California citizen. Since Univ of Washington is a current member of the Pac-12, both sides have a Washington citizen, so it will be hard to remove the state court action in WA to federal court unless the 10 can assert a federal cause of action. State courts are unpredictable, but if the 10 file a competing suit in CA, there are procedural devices that could allow the 2 to stay such a case pending the outcome in WA. I do agree that months become years, no matter where you are litigating.
Whether the Pac-12 has any real value will probably come down to whether the Comcast liability is retired during the current school year by reducing all 12 distribution shares, as Wazzu/OSU want. If so, there may be enough residual value in the brand, the production facilities, etc. to bring the MWC schools under the Pac-12 banner rather than having the remaining 2 join the MWC. But if the remaining 2 have to assume the whole Comcast debacle, that’s tougher.
the current P12 already recognizes the Comcast liability, or at least most of it, so most of the known future liabilities are already on the books. What the P2 are really arguing about is two things: 1) CFP playoff spot guaranteed to a high ranked Power Five school; 2) residual dollars due from March Madness.
Right now, a high-ranked P12 football team gets a bid to the CFP. And that agreement doesn’t expire for a year or two. (So, the remaining P2 have dreams of winning a bare league and going to the playoffs with those riches.). That said, the other leagues have already said that they will take their ball and go home if the P2 tries to enforce that rule.)
Earnings from participating b’ball teams/leagues are paid out over several years after the tourney occurs, so teh P12 is still owed $$ from the ncaa from past tourneys and from teh upcoming tourney. If the league ceases to exist, the ncaa will move to keep the money. OTOH, the leaving 10 are not gonna walk away and leave that cash on the table for the remaining 2 to share.
And this is why the remaining 2 will need to settle quickly. The ncaa gives them just two years (July 1-2026) to add 6 members to grow to the minimum of 8 to remain a league. The R10 can easily drag this out in court beyond 2 years. The California schools could file locally, as could teh Arizona schools as could teh Utah schools.
btw: the P12 parent owns several Delaware LLCs, including the P12 Network. (not sure how that plays into where filings are made)
Well, probably gets a bid. No specific league is guaranteed a bid - as currently constructed, the six highest ranking conference champs plus six at-larges receive bids. The CFP is already indicating that there is momentum toward revising the formula to include five champions and seven at-larges, so this ship has likely sailed. However the Pac-12 is reconstructed, it will likely be fighting with the AAC and Sun Belt (and MWC if that still exists) for the final champion spot after the Power 4.
The R2 would say that they already have left that money on the table - they knew the situation, weighed the options, and chose to leave for an even better financial deal. Still to be litigated, but I agree that this is the biggest point of contention. Settlement somewhere in the middle seems likely.
Anyone with a few hundred bucks can file a lawsuit in any court at any time, true. The question is how that court will respond when R2 counsel inevitably asks for stay or dismissal in light of a previously-filed suit with the same parties and issues pending in another jurisdiction. This gets deep in the weeds and can vary somewhat state to state, but most courts recognize some version of the first-to-file principle, meaning that the first case takes precedence unless that court lacked jurisdiction or was an improper venue. Neither appears to be the case, so I think they are probably stuck in WA state court. A big advantage for the R2.
exactly my point. For example, a local LA Judge (who graduated from USC or UCLA) is not gonna just give up the case without plenty of research time. A locally-elected judge is not going to care about being overturned on appeal, as long as they have some grey area to make their opinion. (And California courts can be extremely slow.)
Add in local judges in Phoenix and SLC, and the clock is ticking.
I understand the possibility of being “hometowned” by locally-elected judges and can’t totally discount that, though I think it’s less likely in a high-profile case where suspiciously one-sided rulings will receive more public scrutiny. In my experience, local judges usually do care about being overturned, especially in high-profile cases and especially when the appellate court might insinuate that the judge did something shady. It would take a really rabid fan to take that kind of risk (assuming that there isn’t a plausible state law theory allowing them to keep the case, which I doubt but haven’t confirmed).
Anyway, this overall strategy would depend on the Departing 10 being prepared (and sufficiently unified) to fight a long and expensive two-front war of attrition against the R2, with the goal of forcing R2 into an unfavorable settlement b/c the MWC schools or whomever supposedly would not be willing to join R2 under the Pac banner until the litigation is resolved. I’m not sure that last premise is even true - if the WA court resolves the injunctive relief issue regarding board authority in favor of the R2 in a reasonable time, I don’t see anything preventing MWC schools from joining the Pac while the NCAA money issue plays out. If so, the two-front war could continue indefinitely until someone gets tired of paying the lawyers.
It is really too bad that this year has been one of the best for the current Pac 12 teams. Strong football teams (12 wins week 1) and now 5 of the top 10 women’s basketball teams are Pac 12.
I don’t think FSU belonged in the top 4, even though I think it’s brutal that an undefeated P5 conference champ didn’t make the playoffs. I think the QB being injured played into the decision, as well as strength of schedule and quality of wins. Which team do you think FSU should have replaced?
AFAIK FSU has no current offers from other conferences, but of course things can change.
FSU still has ~12 years left on its current contract. No other league can make them an offer; if they did, the ACC would sue for tortious interference.
FSU only has two choices: buyout their contract; or, get a majority vote to dissolve the ACC.
Yep, and they would only buyout their contract if they were certain they had a place to land. The ACC is unlikely to dissolve in the next few years, but I expect it won’t last the remaining 12 years of FSU’s contract.
agree. Teh current arrangement will blow up in ~5 years, at which point the Championship Division will involve 30+ teams, and all others will be relegated to 1AA. The leftovers on the Left Coast may be able re-start the Pac.
I know it doesn’t impact the contract and they want money, not respect. I was being facetious.
They played great names. Just that they weren’t great names this year.
I’m not a fan of evaluating the qb to see if they belong. They did what was needed. They won every week.
It’s why we need an 8 team playoff.
That they’re playing Georgia, another team with a legit claim but easier omission, is almost like a 3rd semi final. It’s just that for both it’s the final.
