The new Pac-12 deal should help hoops out west

The big news of the day is that the Pac-12, with new additions Colorado and Utah, have signed a new television deal with FOX Sports and ESPN valued at upwards of $3 billion. Its a twelve year deal that stretches from the 2012-2013 season through the 2024-2025 season. Many of the final details have yet to be agreed upon. (Matt Norlander over at CBS has a good breakdown of what has and has not decided on.)

The most important detail, however, is that ESPN will now be airing 46 Pac-12 games beginning in 2012-2013.

Its no secret that the Pac-10 has been down the past couple of seasons, and next year doesn't appear promising. UCLA, Washington, and Washington State all have lost a significant amount of talent, some to graduation and some to early entry. And with another subpar recruiting class coming in, the league will once again struggle to field top 25 teams.


These things tend to be cyclical -- the conference was loaded in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons -- but one argument that hasn't been mentioned much as to why the league is down is a lack of TV exposure. The current deal the Pac-10 has is pretty terrible. For people on the east coast, its a crap shoot as to whether or not we would be able to see games. For me, personally, the local FSN affiliate would air one game on Thursdays, two on Saturday, and on Sunday.* And those games would only air when the local sports shows and football coverage was finished, usually midway through the first half and sometimes at halftime.

(*The way the current schedule for the Pac-10 is set up is that there were five sets of travel partners -- the Oregon schools, the Washington schools, the Arizona schools, Southern California, and the Bay area. During conference season, games were played on Thursdays and Saturdays -- i.e. the Oregon schools going to Washington and the Arizona schools playing at UCLA and USC -- while the leftover two teams would play each other -- i.e. Cal heading to Stanford. This will change with the 12 teams, but since the conference didn't have to agree to any Monday or Tuesday games -- only Wednesday, Thurday, Saturday, and Sunday -- the concept of travel partners still exists..)

Many cable networks don't carry these games if you are out of market (or without a more expensive cable package), and some in-market games weren't even televised. Recruits want to be seen. They want to play on ESPN. Outside of the (small) handful of games picked up by ESPN or CBS, this would not happen for anyone headed to a Pac-10 school.

Its also great for fans and media members alike. I can attest that for the past two seasons, I've not been as familiar with teams in the Pac-10 as any of the other five power conferences, or even as familiar as I was with teams in the CAA and the A-10, which regularly have their games aired on TV in DC.

The newfound exposure will be great for the fans of the conference.

It will also be great for the league as a whole. More exposure equals better recruiting. Better recruiting means better teams and better competition, which makes the league more nationally relevant.

This new deal could end up being what sparks the revival of big time college basketball on the West Coast.