Appeal Tribune
܂ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2018܂ 1B
Sports
Pac-12 falls behind rivals
Revenue sharing won’t reach $38M in payouts per school until 2023
The Pac-12 is trailing other conferences when it comes to payouts to member schools. KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY SPORTS
Brent Schrotenboer
USA TODAY Sports
The Pac-12 Conference is pro-
jected to fall far behind other Power
5 conferences over the next five
years in revenue-sharing and won’t
even reach $38 million in payouts
per school until 2023, according to
budget documents recently provid-
ed by Pac-12 member Washington
State.
By comparison, the Big Ten is
expected to provide payouts to
schools this year that exceed $51
million. Even the Atlantic Coast
Conference soon is expected to
rocket past $40 million after previ-
ously ranking last in school
payouts among the Power 5.
And that’s a problem for the
Pac-12, which recently also has
struggled on the national stage in
football and men’s basketball.
“I think if you look at the overall
athletic budgets of the top 25 larg-
est (public) athletic budgets in the
country, I think the Pac-12 only has
two schools that are even on that
list,” Washington State President
Kirk Schulz told USA TODAY
Sports.
“I do think it’s harder to compete
for coaches. It’s harder to build fa-
cilities. It’s harder to do the things
we would like to do with less reve-
nue coming in compared to (other
leagues). I do think it puts us at a
disadvantage.”
Some Pac-12 school officials re-
cently have grumbled dissatisfac-
“I think if you look at the overall athletic budgets of
the top 25 largest (public) athletic budgets in the
country, I think the Pac-12 only has two schools that
are even on that list. I do think it’s harder to compete
for coaches. It’s harder to build facilities. It’s harder
to do the things we would like to do with less
revenue coming in compared to (other leagues). I do
think it puts us at a disadvantage.”
Kirk Schulz,
Washington State President
tion about the payout disparity and
accepted that it wouldn’t improve
dramatically until around 2023-24,
when the league’s current TV con-
tracts expire with ESPN and Fox.
The recent budget projections from
WSU put the next five years into
stark specific terms.
This year, the payout estimate is
$31.5 million. It then is projected to
go up incrementally to $32.7 million
in fiscal year 2019, $35.3 million in
2021 and $38.1 million in 2023, ac-
cording to the payout projection
range confirmed by WSU officials.
The Pac-12 shares television rev-
enue equally and generally only
has slight differences among mem-
bers with payouts.
Every other Power 5 league ei-
ther has exceeded the $40 million
payout mark already or is projected
to get there in a year or two at most,
with contract terms that are ex-
pected to increase that amount an-
nually.
“As I told our fans, we’ve got to
stop worrying what the Pac-12 is
providing to the conference and
start doing some of our own cre-
ative things to bring in additional
revenue,” Schulz said.
In the meantime, the Pac-12 has
seen a number of coaches and ath-
letic directors taking the same jobs
at other Power 5 conference
schools that offered more, includ-
ing basketball coach Cuonzo Mar-
tin, who left Cal last year for a big-
ger contract at Missouri. Football
coach Willie Taggart was making
$2.9 million guaranteed at Oregon
but moved last year to Florida
State, where his contract is $30
million over six years.
Schulz doesn’t blame league
leadership for the league’s position
and said Pac-12 commissioner Lar-
ry Scott “continues to do a great job
for our conference.” Instead, he
noted the cyclical nature of the rev-
enue landscape for conferences,
which make most of their money
from media networks broadcasting
their football and men’s basketball
games.
For example, in 2013-2014, the
Pac-12’s $374 million in total reve-
nue ranked first in the Power 5. But
then the market spiraled upward.
At the same time, the Pac-12’s tele-
vision venture, the Pac-12 Net-
works, failed to meet financial ex-
pectations after battling distribu-
tion challenges.
The Pac-12 declined comment
on the projections and referred
USA TODAY Sports to a news re-
lease last month that noted mem-
ber distributions have increased
63% since 2012-13, when the aver-
age was $19 million.
Other conferences still have had
bigger percentage increases since
then and now have much rosier tra-
jectories. The Southeastern Con-
ference reported an average payout
of about $41 million for fiscal year
2017. In the ACC, recent payouts
have ranged from $25 million to $31
million. But that is expected to in-
crease significantly after next year,
when the ACC and ESPN launch the
ACC Network. Florida State athletic
director Stan Wilcox said at a uni-
versity board of trustees meeting
last year that the average payout is
See PAC-12, Page 3B
A Salem water crisis ... of a different sort
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
We’ve recently been camping … at
home.
Along with the on-again, off-again,
on again cyanotoxin water advisory in
Salem, Kay and I recently were hit by a
water crisis of a different color, and
odor, so to speak.
When the company that contracted
to put in the fiber-optic lines to schools
was working in our neighborhood, one
of their Ditch Witch horizontal drilling
machines speared our home sewer line.
Right through the heart, according to
the photo provided by the plumber who
was trying to see what was clogging the
line.
The video shows a bright orange ca-
ble running smack dab through the mid-
dle of the concrete pipe.
The contractor, Henkels & McCoy out
of Portland, was Johnnie on the spot
(pun intended on the “Johnnie”) with
the repairs, digging down to the rupture
and installing a splice the day after we
notified them of the pipe impalement.
And we’ve submitted the plumber in-
voices for reimbursement.
But for the three-plus days between
the first bathroom backup, and resulting
unsuccessful rooter attempt, water jet
flushing and sewer-line colonoscopy
camera shoot, along with the repairs, we
were bereft of bathroom, shower and
sinks.
All the while commuting to the water
station at nearby Woodmansee Park
and at the home of Kay’s buddy Sandy
and her husband Ken that is on a well in
the wilds of south Salem.
As I said, during the double-wham-
my interregnum, we were basically
camping at home, fetching potable wa-
ter and looking for open-source bath-
rooms.
The latter of which is less of a prob-
lem for guys than for gals, No. 1-wise, if
you catch my drift.
Not to be too crude, or no more crude
than usual, let’s just say that when the
sun went down, the greenery in the
backyard that’s obscured from view was
well-watered.
I digress.
With the help of nearby relatives and
friends, the port-a-potty next to the Ta-
ble of Plenty food pantry at Queen of
Peace Catholic Church, the showers at
my member-friendly YMCA, and the
24-7 hours at the neighborhood WinCo
Foods, we limped, and occasionally
sprinted, through the bathroom dearth.
As a thanks to WinCo, we bought
something every time we went, the key
being to think strategically, dividing up
the shopping list to “essentials” to be
purchased immediately, and “can-wait”
Henry Miller and his bag of cockles. KAY
See MILLER, Page 3B
MILLER/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL