If you haven’t already heard, the PAC-12 recently came to an agreement with ESPN and Fox Sports Net (ROOT Sports) regarding television rights. PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott has always said he wants the PAC-12 to receive a more national exposure, and this is just another step in doing that.
The T.V. deal will take effect in 2012.
Instead of giving you a bunch of facts about distribution of the T.V. money between schools, broadcasting rights, and stuff you really don’t care about, I decided to list the facts that will impact us (people in the Puget Sound region) the most.
To Continue...
Basketball
- 68 regular-season men's basketball games will be appearing on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and Fox Sports Net.
- The rest of the basketball games will appear on the new PAC-12 Network, coming out in 2012.
- The Conference's men's basketball tournament (quarterfinals, semi-finals and the championship game) will be shown on ESPN/ESPN2 or FOX Sports/FX. ESPN will broadcast the first basketball championships and then rotate with FOX/FX each year.
Football
- 74 regular-season football games will be televised on select ESPN and FOX broadcast or national cable networks, including ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, FOX broadcast network and FX.
- 10 regular-season football games per year will be on a combination of the ABC and FOX broadcast networks with full national clearance with a substantial commitment for primetime coverage.
- The rest of the games will be broadcast on the PAC-12 network.
- The Pac-12 Football Championship Game, starting with FOX Sports in 2012 (FOX already has rights to the inaugural 2011 game) and then rotating between FOX Sports and ESPN each year. The game will take place on a Friday night primetime.
And now, if you’re on the go, you can watch the game! You will now have the ability to watch the game from your phone, computer, tablet, etc.
We always whine about not having our teams on national television, and it looks like the PAC-12 heard us.
Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com
