Pac-12 alliance is a punch back at SEC and ESPN
https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/j...alliance-is-a-punch-back-at-sec-and-espn.html
Absent on Tuesday was any hint of the NCAA. It’s lost clout. Make note of that.
Forgive the pundits who woke up drunk and took another sip from the SEC’s spiked punch bowl. They missed the point. Also excuse those who still believe ESPN is still first a news agency and not the money-printing event company it has become.
Window dressing... the critics called it.
Arm waving... they termed it.
ESPN’s primary channels didn’t even bother to carry the live news conference that announced a
ground-breaking alliance between the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC on Tuesday. They left it to the Pac-12 Network, the ACC Network and the Big Ten Network. Wrap your head around that. Then sober up and consider that what we saw this week from 41 major universities was a punch back at those who are trying to run away with the keys to major college athletics
Pac12's,George Kliavkoff, sat up straight alongside Kevin Warren of the Big Ten and the ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, and they basically talked about the SEC/ESPN without talking about the SEC/ESPN.
Those two entities are married now.
None of us were invited to the wedding. But it’s evident that the SEC and ESPN are in this together over the next decade, for better or — even better. The SEC and ESPN went to great lengths on Tuesday to pretend there was nothing to see here. But down deep, I think the happy couple knows they’ve fostered a troubling divide in college athletics. One the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 apparently don’t have to live with.
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