Okay, I may be an idiot and over-looking obvious things here, but I think the following could be a pathway to survival for the Pac-4 schools over the next ~3 seasons, and possibly beyond...
Pretext - the people running college football (i.e. TV suits) clearly do not like Cal. They have publicly stated that Cal has zero media value, which is absolute horse shit. Furthermore, the majority of other college football fans have zero respect or even downright hatred of Cal. So we have to think outside the box.
So what's the plan??
Worst case: between a partial share of that $420M in alleged future Pac-12 distributions, tens of millions in UCLA Calimony, and whatever Apple TV subscription revenue could be generated, a scenario such as the one above would allow Cal and the others to survive and better position themselves for the next round of realignment in 3-5 years.
Pretext - the people running college football (i.e. TV suits) clearly do not like Cal. They have publicly stated that Cal has zero media value, which is absolute horse shit. Furthermore, the majority of other college football fans have zero respect or even downright hatred of Cal. So we have to think outside the box.
So what's the plan??
- Bring OSU, WSU and Stanford to the table, get the various regents and lawyers involve, and figure out a plan to lock down the alleged $420M in Pac-12 distributions that are up for grabs (source: https://www.sportskeeda.com/college...n-four-cover-additional-costs-damages-reports).
- Get the UC Regents to formalize the plan for Cal's "Calimony" from UCLA under the condition that Cal stays in the PAC conference. I would suggest something like $10M/year for 3 years followed by $5M/year for 3 years.
- Re-engage with Apple and get a streaming deal in place, likely based heavily on hitting subscription thresholds. PAC-12 has existing assets to do production and televise games. Seems like it would be relatively low risk for Apple. People wrongly dismiss subscription model based on Pac-12 Network's failures, without understanding that you literally could not buy PAC-12 Network a la carte from anywhere. The only way to get it (if you didn't have Comcast) was to pay $60/month for a package through the likes of Sling TV. At a reasonable cost of say $12 or $15/month, I think PAC-12 games on Apple could generate a healthy number of subscriptions.
- Engage schools like SDSU, Fresno, Boise, etc., and offer to cover partial costs of exit fees from MWC. Tell anyone with "academic prestige" concerns to get f**cked.
- Embrace being "outside" of the college football establishment. Market the new conference accordingly. "West Coast Football," "Loyal to the Soil," etc. If you get over the "brand name" aspect the new conference, the likes of Boise, Fresno, SDSU and others offer a respectable level of competition.
- Schedule AGGRESSIVELY with non-conference opponents. Offer a commission to outside schools based on new Apple TV subscribers generated as an incentive.
Worst case: between a partial share of that $420M in alleged future Pac-12 distributions, tens of millions in UCLA Calimony, and whatever Apple TV subscription revenue could be generated, a scenario such as the one above would allow Cal and the others to survive and better position themselves for the next round of realignment in 3-5 years.
