.@Tim_Prangley and @USCJ32 react to KVA’s Notre Dame move, #Pac12 media day, the preseason All-Pac-12 teams, and much more.
The decision of Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa to go to Notre Dame was a blow for USC. There’s no question about that. Did USC fail to do anything it reasonably could have done to make KVA reconsider his decision, or was this simply a situation in which a young man felt very deeply about going to one school? That’s a question worth considering.
Pac-12 media day was on Friday. Lincoln Riley, Caleb Williams, and Mason Cobb all represented USC in Las Vegas. Media day occurred after the 2023 preseason All-Pac-12 teams were released earlier in the week. The preseason media poll was also unveiled before Pac-12 media day. USC was picked by media voters to win the conference championship this season, with Washington in second and Utah a very close third.
These and other stories invite extensive analysis and commentary. Tim Prangley and guest co-host USC J explore these topics and more on the latest edition of Trojan Conquest Live.
Subscribe to, like, and share the USC channel at The Voice of College Football:
Kliavkoff botched the #Pac12 media rights part of his long-anticipated remarks. Colorado AD Rick George went to the airport.
A few big stories dominated Pac-12 media day. The biggest story, whether anyone likes it or not, was Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff doing a relatively poor job of handling the topic national writers and commentators were primarily interested in: the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations. Kliavkoff’s remarks suggested that the Pac-12 had arrived at a deal or was extremely close to nailing down a deal. When pressed to clarify his remarks, Kliavkoff said no one should read too much into them.
Kliavkoff perpetuated the story and added to the lingering sense of uncertainty in the conference, instead of finding a middle-ground way to say that progress had been made in negotations, but not enough to have a fully-finalized deal.
Anyone in the room in Las Vegas could see that Kliavkoff bungled this very important moment, the comissioner’s most public and prominent moment after several months of radio silence on the matter while he engaged in negotiations and held lots of meetings with the Pac-12 CEO Group.
One person who didn’t stick around for the rest of Pac-12 media day after the Kliavkoff press conference early in the morning: Colorado Athletic Director Rick George.
In this show at The Voice of College Football with host Mark Rogers, Tony Siracusa of Last Word on College Football reported that George went straight to the airport to catch a flight out of Vegas after Kliavkoff’s unpolished moment in front of the cameras and the press. It was the clearest and most visible sign that Kliavkoff did not perform well in this very public setting.
That was one big story. Get a look at other big stories from around the Pac-12 on media day, including hilarious and shocking quotes from Utah coach Kyle Whittingham:
Next year, Lincoln Riley will attend #B1G media days. See what he said in his final #Pac12 media day remarks. #USC
Next year, Lincoln Riley will catch a plane flight to the Midwest to appear at Big Ten media days. The USC Trojans will enter their new conference on July 1, 2024. Weeks later, Riley will attend a media day gathering with Jim Harbaugh of Michigan and Ryan Day of Ohio State, unless those two coaches either go to the NFL or something very unexpected happens in the coming 12 months.
Friday in Las Vegas, Riley made his last appearance at Pac-12 media day. There are and have been rumors that in several years, UCLA might want to come back to the Pac-12, but USC seems pretty set as a long-term Big Ten member. Fans certainly are ready to leave the Pac-12 behind. The school will enjoy the added revenue from the Big Ten television deal. President Carol Folt will enjoy the academic prestige of joining Big Ten member institutions.
See what Riley said and talked about at his very last Pac-12 media day:
Dan Lanning, Bo Nix, and Jeffrey Bassa will be taking the stage on Friday at the Pac-12 Media Day. Here’s how you can tune in and watch.
The unofficial start to the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 comes on Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That is when Pac-12 media day takes place, giving us a chance to hear from coaches and players around the conference, diving into the storylines and predictions for the upcoming season.
It’s been a long offseason, but we have finally made it to the oasis of new football content.
For the Oregon Ducks, head coach Dan Lanning will represent the team, alongside quarterback Bo Nix and linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, all of whom arrived in Las Vegas earlier this week.
If you are interested in tuning into the action and seeing what the trio of Ducks has to say, you can find it all on TV. Here is what you need to know:
Date: Friday, July 21, 2023
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
How to Watch: Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Now, Pac-12.com
Here is the full schedule of press conferences set to take place throughout the day:
TV Schedule
 School
Head Coach & Student-Athletes
8:45a PT
Utah Utes
Kyle Whittingham, Cameron Rising (QB) & Cole Bishop (S)
9:20a PT
USC
Lincoln Riley, Caleb Williams (QB) & Mason Cobb (ILB)
9:55a PT
Stanford Cardinal
Troy Taylor, John Humphreys (WR) & Tristan Sinclair (ILB)
10:30a PT
Arizona Wildcats
Jedd Fisch, Jayden de Laura (QB) & Treydan Stukes (CB)
11:05a PT
Washington State Cougars
Jake Dickert, Cameron Ward (QB) & Ron Stone Jr. (EDGE)
11:40a PT
Oregon State Beavers
Jonathan Smith, Anthony Gould (WR) & Kitan Oladapo (DB)
1:00p PT
Washington Huskies
Kalen DeBoer, Michael Penix Jr. (QB) & Edefuan Ulofoshio (LB)
1:35p PT
Oregon Ducks
Dan Lanning, Bo Nix (QB) & Jeffrey Bassa (LB)
2:10p PT
Arizona State Sun Devils
Kenny Dillingham, Jalin Conyers (TE) & Jordan Clark (DB)
2:45p PT
California Golden Bears
Justin Wilcox, Matthew Cindric (OL) & Jackson Sirmon (LB)
3:20p PT
Colorado Buffaloes
Charles Kelly (DC)*, Shedeur Sanders (QB) & Travis Hunter (CB/WR)
3:55p PT
UCLA Bruins
Chip Kelly, Duke Clemens (OL) & Laiatu Latu (DL/LB)
The Oregon Ducks are set to host their media day at Autzen Stadium on July 31 before kicking off practices during the first week of August.
Monday, we talked to @MarkRogersTV about #Pac12 media day. News broke on Tuesday, but this is still a relevant conversation.
Pac-12 media day is Friday. On our weekly show with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football, we previewed what might happen. Since we recorded the show on Monday night, fresh news has emerged. It slightly changes the parameters of the preview, but not dramatically.
Let’s catch up before we lead into our show with Mark on his USC YouTube channel.
On Tuesday, two important stories broke, three if you want to parse them more finely.
The first story is that the Mountain West Conference accepted San Diego State as a member school without demanding a $16.5 million exit fee. This resolved (temporarily) the confusion surrounding San Diego State officially leaving the Mountain West.
The second story from Tuesday with relevance for the Pac-12 and its media day was the report by ESPN that a Pac-12 media deal will be completed in the “near future.” That report was accompanied by widespread reports that the Pac-12 won’t announce any media rights deal on or before Pac-12 media day.
Many will say that the Pac-12 not having an announcement on Pac-12 media day is a defeat for the conference. However, ESPN reporting complete with Pac-12 sourcing suggests that ESPN has proximity to the situation, which means a delay in the finalization of a deal is unlikely to hurt the Pac-12’s relationship with ESPN and any other TV or streaming partners.
Yes, we said it would be ideal for the Pac-12 if it finalized its media rights package by Pac-12 media day, but the absolute requirement was to be close enough on a deal — with agreeable terms or clearly positive progress — that member schools would be happy with the situation and therefore disinclined to bolt for the Big 12 or anywhere else.
It appears that is the case. However, the lack of finalization offers the possibility that an unexpected plot twist could throw a monkey wrench into everything.
Let’s go back to our show with Mark Rogers. The one thing we said on the show which seems particularly noteworthy after Tuesday’s news developments is that the Pac-12 is probably going to emerge with a media rights deal which does not have San Diego State or SMU football inventory in 2024. The Pac-12 will have 10 schools in 2024 and split media rights revenues 10 ways, so that the 10 schools get a larger cut. The plan is likely for SDSU and SMU to join in 2025 and provide the increased inventory the Pac-12 will need on a long-term basis.
Here’s our show with Mark, previewing Pac-12 media day and more at The Voice of College Football:
The Pac-12 media day is later this week, so we wanted to get our year-end award predictions on record.
The 2023 college football season officially begins for the Pac-12 later this week, when coaches and select players all convene in Las Vegas for the annual Pac-12 Media Day.
Dan Lanning will be in attendance alongside QB Bo Nix and LB Jeffrey Bassa, talking to media members around the league and previewing the upcoming season, where the Ducks hope to make it back to Las Vegas for the conference title game in December.
One of the best things that come out of the Pac-12 Media Day is award predictions from the top media members in the conference. A select group of reporters is asked to predict who they think will win the year-end awards, such as Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and Coach of the Year.
Here at Ducks Wire, we wanted to do the same, so we brought together our first roundtable of the year to give a preview of the Pac-12 as a whole and see if we could predict who some of the biggest award-winners would be in 2023.
The #Pac12 doesn’t have to finalize every last detail by July 21, but it does need a framework of a deal it can tout to the public.
We won’t sit here and tell you it doesn’t matter if the Pac-12 finalizes a media rights deal by July 21. It certainly would matter. Big 12 apologists or general college sports skeptics might roll their eyes at the claim that the Pac-12 doesn’t have to have a finalized deal by July 21. After all, we have been saying George Kliavkoff needs to be able to present a deal to the press and the world on July 21, which is Pac-12 media day.
We’re not walking back our stated claim that the Pac-12 needs a deal by July 21. However, there’s a nuance here which is worth noting: While the best-case scenario is that the Pac-12 does finalize its deal by July 21, the second-best scenario — and a reasonable if imperfect one — is that the Pac-12 doesn’t have a finalized deal but can present the framework of a deal to the public, with the details to be hammered out in subsequent weeks.
If George Kliavkoff doesn’t have an exact dollar figure for the rights deal, but he can provide a range of figures which has a highly competitive price point, that’s good enough.
The main thing: He can’t have nothing, or to be more precise, he can’t make general assurances or statements of confidence. He needs some meat on the bone.
“â The media rights contract. The annual valuation matters immensely, but so does the means of delivery. How many football games will be placed on a streaming platform and how many will be available on linear television?
“â The grant-of-rights agreement. There is no collective security without this document, which is signed by the schools and binds their media revenue to the conference. (The Pac-12 likely is targeting a medium-term agreement that covers five or six years.)
“â The decision on expansion. Should the conference add two members â SMU and San Diego State are the favorites â or move forward with 10?”
A 100-percent-complete agenda would be fantastic, but 90 to 95 percent would be fine. If it’s clear the conference is far removed from finishing these items of business, that would be a black eye and a huge failure for the Pac-12.
A look at what Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning had to say at Pac-12 media day on Friday.
The official mark that the college football season is right around the corner â media days are here.
The Pac-12 is hosting its annual media day on Friday, and the commissioner, as well as coaches and players from all 12 schools, are in attendance and taking questions from the media. Of course, this is a bit of a contentious time for the conference with USC and UCLA announcing their plans to leave for the Big Ten in the coming years.
While that is the major storyline, we particularly wanted to focus on what Oregon coach Dan Lanning had to say on Friday. Ahead of his first season with the Ducks, there are a lot of questions to answer. Here’s some of what he said during the press conference:
The Pac-12 media predicts Utah and Oregon to finish 1-2 in the conference standings and will meet in Vegas for the title game.
The Pac-12 media selections were announced today with Utah being the favorite to repeat as conference champions.
Oregon was picked to finish second and face the Utes in the Pac-12 title game in December. Utah received 26 of the 33 first-place votes. They picked the Ducks to win the North and the title in 2021, but there are no divisions this season.
Although USC picked up five first place votes to Oregon’s two, the Ducks received more overall points than the Trojans (345-341).
The conference dissolved the divisional format going forward since the conference presidents didn’t want the top two teams being in one division and one of the best squads being left out of the title game.
UCLA was picked fourth with 289 points and perhaps a surprise selection, Oregon State, was predicted to finish fifth with 246 points.
Washington (212) and Washington State (177) were picked to finish sixth and seventh, respectively, with the Bay Area schools (Stanford and Cal) and the Arizona schools (ASU and Arizona) falling behind. Colorado was the unlucky one to be picked to finish last with 58 points.
The 2022 Pac-12 Football Championship Game takes place on Friday, Dec. 2 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be carried on FOX.
