The Pac-12’s pursuit of a media rights contract, which began more than eight months ago in the middle of a roiling summer, is “close to being resolved,’’ according to a university president who sits on the Pac-12 Board of Directors’ executive committee.
And Washington State’s Kirk Schulz has a timeframe in mind.
“My sense is we need to get it done in March — in mid-March, hopefully,” Schulz told the Hotline on Monday. “The longer it goes, the more noise there will be.”
There is already plenty of noise, with frequent reports speculating about a disappointing media contract and frustrated schools seeking salvation in the Big 12.
The public narrative became so bleak last week that the presidents issued a joint statement of unity. Schulz knew it carried a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” component.
“I thought people would see it as the same thing a head coach does when he says publicly that he loves his staff, then he fires them all,” Schulz said.
“But we were getting battered constantly with all the rhetoric out of the Big 12 (region), with talk that schools were leaving … At the least, we had to let people know the 10 Pac-12 schools were committed to staying together.
“But the speed with which (the presidents) were willing to put that out — I was stunned by my colleagues. Somebody said, ‘We should do something,’ and within an hour, everyone was saying yes … Normally, everyone wants to be a wordsmith.”
Schulz’s grasp of the college sports landscape ranks with that of any president in the Power Five.
He was Kansas State’s boss when the Big 12 lost Nebraska (to the Big Ten), Missouri (SEC) and Colorado (Pac-12).
He’s a member of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers and played a key role in expanding the event.
And he’s on the Pac-12’s executive committee, along with Stanford’s Marc Tessiere-Lavigne and Washington’s Ana Mari Cauce (chair), which sets the agenda for the board and works…
Read the full article here
