The Pac-12: Death by 1,000 Cuts and a “$” sign
Ratings
One of the biggest drivers of rights fees is the number of people who watch the games. Zach Miller of Medium.com analyzed the average weekly regular season viewership of each FBS team.
It’s not pretty for the Pac-12. The top three conference teams, #12 Oregon (2.21 million viewers), #14 USC (2.07M), and #25 UCLA (1.59M) combined (5.87M), had slightly more viewers each week than #1 Ohio State (5.8M) did on their own. Worse, USC and UCLA are headed to the Big Ten.
Of the Top 45 most-watched games of the 2022 season, the Pac-12 barely made a dent:
- 13 – Notre Dame at USC – 6.68 million viewers
- 17 – Oregon at Georgia – 6.2M
- 30 – USC at UCLA – 4.53M
That’s not even the embarrassing part. The Pac-12’s total average weekly viewership was 12.558M. Meanwhile, the top three SEC Teams (Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia) had 12.74M, and the top three Big 12 teams (Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State) had 13.22M viewers, respectively.
And don’t forget the Pac-12 was close to sending a team to the College Football Playoff.
Major networks won’t spend big dollars on a product that fans ignore. Don’t put all of this on the Pac-12 Network because ESPN and FOX pick the games they want to show first, and then the Pac-12 Network gets what’s left.
Results
One thing that can’t be faked is the results. The Pac-12 has largely been a non-factor on the national stage since the CFP went to a four-team format in 2014. Only Washington (2016-17) and Oregon (2014-15) made the cut.
No two-loss team has ever made college football’s final four, and those are the only teams that finished the regular season with fewer. Conference proponents will say the results are due to cannibalization, but that doesn’t answer for the overall lack of quality compared to the other Power 5 conferences.
Recruits
Recruits notice these things. According to 24-7 in the 2023 cycle, combining transfers and incoming freshmen, the top three ranked Pac-12 Schools were 9-USC, 10-Oregon, and 21-Colorado. Last year it was 6-USC, 16-Oregon, and 25-Arizona.
It’s a vicious cycle; teams can’t win or get on tv without talent. But recruits won’t go to a school that isn’t on tv because they don’t win.