Loyal, let me offer you a couple of things to help answer your question (your last sentence).
First, and probably foremost, streaming is coming of age. It is serendipity that streaming is feeling ready to jump heavily into college football just as the PAC is concluding a media contract. Had streaming been ready several years ago, the other P5 conferences would have benefitted from that market. And, eventually, they will benefit from streaming. But due to several factors that I know and probably several more that I don't know, the timing for the PAC was almost perfect. Why just "almost"? Because if the streaming giants were ready 6-12 months earlier, they would not have jumped into our negotiation late, and we'd probably be done by now. But the fact that one streaming platform was ready and shouldered its way into the negotiation has pushed others, and here at the last minute of the PAC's deal there has been legitimate interest that seems likely to produce real money. In short, the timing is somewhat accidental, but it is to the PAC's advantage. And it does not hurt that national media views the west coast as streaming-friendly. How that will translate to the college football world remains to be seen, and that is why I expect actual viewership to impact net dollars paid; see the next paragraph.
Second, conventional TV revenues are off for college football and the revenue is not as easy to negotiate from any of the major networks as it was a few years ago. "A real TV deal" will be the foundation of the PAC media deal, but streaming will have a role, and the fact that the final deal has been pushed back from when I thought it would be done (it has been pushed at least 3-4 months and we still appear to have several weeks to go) to now suggests that the streaming aspect may be bigger than was initially expected. However, while the TV deal will be mostly semi-guaranteed dollars, I expect the streaming compensation model to be more of a "salary plus commission" model, where we get a base amount guaranteed and a bonus $ system of some sort as we exceed what ever is negotiated as the minimum viewing threshold. That means that we have the potential to significantly increase revenue if we get the viewers. And the viewers will not be tied to a network's specific geography; they can be literally anywhere. The PAC will be the first league to actively promote to a streaming college football audience, and I suspect we will do better at that than most expect.
Long story short, I think streaming will prove to be an advantage to WSU and the PAC. Sure, I could be wrong. But this looks to me like a bet with decent odds.
