A conference got a TV deal from the CW … and it’s not the Pac-12

Remember all the jokes about the #Pac12 being on Ion Television? Guess what? The #ACC struck a CW deal.

The constant intrigue and uncertainty surrounding the Pac-12 and its media rights deal has led us down several interesting and unconventional paths.

There was an erroneous report earlier this year that the Pac-12 had agreed to a deal with Ion Television, a widely-available over-the-air channel which airs syndicated reruns of older television shows. The guffawing and chuckling from Big 12 fans and other college sports fans in the wake of that report (though it didn’t turn out to be true) were as predictable as the sun rising in the east. The optics of a Power Five conference putting its football games on a TV network which is a dumping ground for old shows are not great. It’s certainly not ESPN or Turner or Fox.

Yet, guess what? Even though the Pac-12 has not actually finalized a deal with Ion or one of these other syndication-magnet over-the-air networks, the Atlantic Coast Conference has done precisely that. The ACC announced a new football and basketball deal with The CW, another TV outlet which — much like Ion — runs a lot of syndicated content and would never be confused with a “premium” or “Cadillac” television outlet.

All of this raises the question: Will the Pac-12 actually seal an agreement with Ion Television after all? It didn’t happen earlier, but maybe it still will in the near future. Stay tuned.

[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696092289]