SEC and windfall profits

[Geoduck12]

With the SEC getting more and more money from TV contracts I have notice one obvious impact. For years the PAC12 dominated softball, over the last 5 years that domination has vanished, new better facilities, wider recruiting networks getting premier level cal athletes and hiring premier level coaching (Auburn hired ASU all time winning coach).

The same is beginning to happen in women's soccer, money rules and the SEC programs made $10 mil more than the PAC this last year and their numbers are projected to increase. Th SEC network is the 5th most valuable sports network in the nation.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Sports is a huge money maker for colleges. The SEC knows it Nd acts on it. The PAC 12 can't see the forest from the trees.

 

[Coug1990]

Sports is a huge money maker for colleges. The SEC knows it Nd acts on it. The PAC 12 can't see the forest from the trees.

I don't know if that is true anymore. It definitely was true when the uw's Tom Hansen was running the conference. Now that Larry Scott is running the show, revenues are way up.

What we are also seeing is that the other conferences have been making money for decades. So, their infrastructure of all teams and sports are way ahead of the P12. So, the P12 is not going to catch up in the beginning years of finally getting money to invest into programs. The problem was decades in the making, it is not going to all be fixed in a few years.

 

[Brent H.]

One major issue is that the Pac-12 is costing themselves a ton of money not being on DirecTV right now. Pac-12 revenue isn't as much as they hoped and that's because all the major games are on channels that Direct carrie. DirecTV has clearly won this battle, they know the average consumer doesn't care about the Pac-12 games between Colorado and WSU so why pay the 95 cents per subscriber when USC at Oregon will be on ESPN anyways? The Pac-12 will fall further behind the SEC and Big 10 as long as they aren't on DirecTV.

 

[Coug95man2]

I don't know if that is true anymore. It definitely was true when the uw's Tom Hansen was running the conference. Now that Larry Scott is running the show, revenues are way up.

What we are also seeing is that the other conferences have been making money for decades. So, their infrastructure of all teams and sports are way ahead of the P12. So, the P12 is not going to catch up in the beginning years of finally getting money to invest into programs. The problem was decades in the making, it is not going to all be fixed in a few years.

Agree completely. I will also look further back in time and the SEC. They've been investing money for decades… hence they have rabid fans. Before twitter, before 500 channels of TV, before the ADHD/ADD world we live in, they were investing in the sports, thus the fans, and they now have generation after generation of fans that are invested in these programs and are reaping the results of that. West coast, not just the Pac, hasn't invested the same way in a very long time.

The SEC invested in all this stuff… well that all translates into, "they've invested in the fans".