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Inauguration moved inside

WTH - you guys are boring.

This is actually, IMHO a pretty interesting event and decision. Let's talk weather:
  • Coldest Inauguration since Reagan #2 (1985), which was probably not the event Monday will be. BUT, did you know the #2 coldest inauguration after Reagan's was JFK in 1961? 6 degrees. 14 degrees less than projected for Monday. Bet Jackie and the young kids had to bundle up for that since it WAS held outside
  • The estimated temperature and wind in Buffalo for Sunday night's 6:30PM NFL game is within a degree of the expected inauguration 12PM weather
Conspiracy Theorists have at it! Both Sides

Now, seating will be fun. How do you squeeze the 200,000 ticket holders into the 700 seat Rotunda? Well, you don't. Prediction:
  • Any High-Ranking Dem who previously felt compelled to show is already going "Thank Gawd I have an excuse"
  • Republicans - Top Ranking, no change. From there, a frothy group of second stringers clawing to get in with their master, and a group hoping they can't get in
  • All other Democrats. Yippie! MLK Day just got freed up!
  • Many of the 200,000 left out ticket holders will still show up outside
  • All other sane Americans. Oh shit, here we go
I am swearing off all media on Monday. Will catch up Tuesday once some of the shitshow settles.

MN MO SD WI….

I guess there are no good players in California available. I mean, why go out and work when you can just recruit the FCS kids you were already recruiting???

This is lazy recruiting. The talent is in Southern California. At some point you have to go to LA and get in front of kids and build relationships. In LA. You cannot just sign a bunch of FCS kids from the Midwest and call it good.

Locked On College Football Reports that Memphis AD say that if PAC 12 offers them again they will listen, do due Diligence.

Memphis AD said on a local radio station 92.9(their local area, not our local area), that if the PAC 12 were to offer them, that they would seriously listen, consider it, do due diligence.


Because of that PAC 12 should offer them 12 mil to 23 mil and be open to negotiation, counter offers, and should seriously try to get them. And should not lowball them again.


But PAC 12, Teresa Gould is probably not smart enough to do that, which is why it probably won't happen, I'll believe it could happen if it does happen.

It just makes to much sense to happen.

1. Memphis is the BEST G5.

2. If get Memphis, could probably easily then get Tulane, UNLV, USF, UTSA the BEST G5 left.

3. If PAC 12 were to get Memphis, Tulane, UNLV, UTSA, USF. The PAC 12 media deal would be worth 14,15,16,17 mil per team, per year because sports media deal sources told PAC 12, MWC that no SINGLE, SINGLE, SINGLE program would raise the media deal, but that if PAC, MWC were to either merge, or get a handful of teams like Memphis, Tulane, USF, UTSA, UNLV, that media deal would be about 14,15,16,17,18 mil per team per year.

4. It would WEAKEN the AAC the main competition to PAC 12 as far as getting a team to CFP.

5. It would truly make the PAC 12 a Truly best of rest hybrid G5, P5, P4 level conference behind ACC, Big 12.

6. It could make the PAC 12 conference merge with Big 12, ACC in future.

Here the link to watch

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Wilmer hot seat list: how long is the Jimmy Rogers leash....?

Trent Brey (OSU) and Brent Brennan (UA) are listed. I know the Cougs usually aren't that fickle, but WSU can not afford to have Cougar football slide off the rails.

Jimmy Rogers needs to bring in power 4 level talent to keep WSU relevant in this new era. Bringing in a class that was at an FCS school can only be thought of as temporizing (IE what they had to do to fill the roster holes) not a long-term program building solution.

The hot seat list:
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From the company that people love to hate...

Comcast fiasco, departures resulted in massive budget hits to Pac-12 schools | Analysis​


Jon Wilner
Feb. 2, 2025

From Seattle to Salt Lake City, Boulder to Eugene and all points in between, the legacy Pac-12 schools have revealed one final act of self-inflicted budgetary pain.

Financial reports were due to the NCAA in the middle of January and have since been published on school websites or made available upon request.

They reveal the impact of the negotiated settlement with Washington State and Oregon State and the Comcast overpayment fiasco that walloped the conference in winter 2023.

That combination resulted in $125 million withheld from conference distributions over two years, with the amount split evenly among the 10 legacy schools.

The breakdown:

— The negotiated settlement in fall 2023 resulted in each of the departed schools having $5 million withheld from their conference distributions, with an additional $1.5 million “supplement contribution” added to the tab.

If we assume the supplement contributions were made in the 2024 fiscal year — it wasn’t required: they had until Dec. 31, 2024 — then all 10 would have experienced a $6.5 million decrease in conference distributions that was reflected in the reports submitted to the NCAA a few weeks ago.

— The Comcast scandal involved the company overpaying the Pac-12 Networks for 10 years. Conference executives learned of the problem in 2017 but did not alert Comcast, which discovered the overpayments during an internal audit in 2022.

Comcast then withheld a total of $72 million, according to former commissioner George Kliavkoff’s court declaration in a lawsuit filed against the Pac-12 by two executives fired in the aftermath of the scandal.

That hit was shared equally by all 12 schools and impacted both the 2023 and 2024 fiscal year budgets, although it is not known exactly how much was withheld each year.

In its 2024 financial report to the NCAA, Utah showed a $17 million operating shortfall. An addendum to the report noted:

“Most of the deficit can be traced to the breakup of the Pac-12 Conference and significantly reduced distributions due to: The negotiated exit agreement; Legal fees; Overpayment of prior year television distributions.”

Asked for details on the “overpayment” category, an athletic department spokesperson told the Hotline that Utah wasn’t “able to provide such information.” (Presumably, the matter was governed by nondisclosure clauses in the Pac-12’s agreement with Comcast.)

However, the NCAA financial reports illuminate the total damage caused by the Comcast issue and the negotiated settlement, with several schools, including Utah, showing dramatic reductions in certain revenue streams.

At this point, we should step back from the details and make clear two important aspects of the financial reporting system:

— Pac-12 distributions in the 2024 fiscal year came from four primary buckets: the media rights deals with ESPN, Fox and the Pac-12 Networks’ carriage deals; football postseason revenue (e.g., the College Football Playoff); NCAA tournament performance payments; and conference revenue unrelated to media rights, March Madness or the CFP. Each school handles its accounting in slightly different ways.

— The media rights revenue reported by the schools covers local radio agreements, sponsorship deals and digital and e-commerce rights, as well as the Pac-12’s television contracts. As a result, the amounts vary widely from campus to campus and do not match the media distributions reported in the Pac-12’s federal tax filings. (Those only reflect the deals with Fox, ESPN and the Pac-12 Networks.)

Our examination of NCAA reports unearthed the damage done to athletic department budgets.

For example, Utah showed a $9.9 million shift in net revenue from the Pac-12 in the line item that does not include media rights or football postseason payments.

The Utes booked a $3 million surplus in the 2023 fiscal year and a $6.9 million shortfall in 2024.

How much can be attributed to the Comcast fiasco specifically in 2024 is unclear. But the decrease in conference revenue contributed to the Utes experiencing a deep-red bottom line. One of the most fiscally responsible athletic departments in the former Pac-12 had a $17 million operational shortfall.

Oregon revealed a similar shift: The Ducks reported a $1.8 million surplus in conference revenue (excluding media rights and football postseason) in 2023 and an $8.2 million shortfall in 2024 — a swing of $10 million.

At the risk of oversimplifying, we could draw the following conclusions from Utah and Oregon showing a $10 million swing: Given that $6.5 million is rooted in the negotiated settlement with Washington State and Oregon State, that seemingly would leave $3.5 million to the reduction in revenue connected to the Comcast fiasco. (Out of the $6 million total Comcast wallop over two years.)

Colorado also showed a substantial reduction in conference distributions — but over two years. The Buffaloes booked an $8.3 million surplus in the 2022 fiscal year; that figure dropped to $2 million in 2023 and $1.8 million in 2024.

UCLA seemingly accounted for the Comcast reduction and the settlement withholdings in the line item reflecting media rights: After reporting $27.8 million in 2022, the Bruins showed $19.9 million in 2024.

More clarity to the financial picture will arrive in May, when the Pac-12’s tax filings for 2024 — the legacy schools’ final year in the conference — are disclosed. They will include conference distributions from media rights and the football and basketball postseasons.

But enough information is currently available to indicate each legacy school has absorbed a hit of roughly $12 million resulting from the Comcast scandal and the settlement that followed the breakup of the conference.

That’s the equivalent of one year’s salary for the football coach and his entire staff.

It’s enough to handle the annual travel costs for every varsity sport.

It’s almost enough to cover the football roster ($15 million, approximately) once the revenue-sharing model takes hold across the Power Four.

And both situations can, of course, be traced directly to the same source: years of terrible leadership by the commissioners and university presidents that end up hurting the athletes — and passing the cost of doing business onto the fans.

Jon Wilner: jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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