It seems the Pac-12 isn’t the only conference having to refund significant funds to its broadcast partner.
Say what you will about the TV deals Slive and Sankey cut, but at least the SEC isn’t handing out refund checks.
It amazes me every time I see people giving conference commissioners credit for being sharp operators.
Get The Picture 
“A man has to know his limitations,” Clint Eastwood famously said, and Warren did. Give him credit for landing the Bears CEO job before others discovered the mess he created in his short stint at the Big 10.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Why didn’t Fox stand up at some point and say, “excuse me, but these rights are ours” during this negotiation? How did nobody know who had the rights until after the fact?
LikeLiked by 2 people
When it’s Other People’s Money…
LikeLike
GODAWGS1701,
I thought the same thing. If somehow, I lost $25 Million it would not take 3 years for me to realize something was wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kevin Warren was a disaster. He was the one that canceled the Big 10 season, as I remember.
LikeLike
I’m sure he’ll do better with the Bears!
LikeLike
Kevin Warren held up playoff expansion with his “alliance” for a sufficiently long enough period to pluck USC and UCLA from the Pac 12 to grab the LA TV market. In the B1G presidents’ minds, he was a genius.
He just needed Justin Fields’s appearance at a UGA preseason practice to shake up the B1G’s academics who wanted the season cancelled.
LikeLike
I never knew that B1G teams after November 1st weren’t required to play night games. And how to you make a deal for media rights which could have night games and not hammer that out with the ADs beforehand?
LikeLike
Nothing a $1000 increase in season ticket prices can’t handle.
LikeLiked by 3 people
TV suits v college administrators is the biggest mismatch in the world. The college guys are generally used to having their rings kissed, and are ill prepared to deal with the most cutthroat negotiators in the history of capitalism. This is just the latest example of people who think they’re lots smarter than they are getting cleaned out by the really smart guys.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Jimmy Sexton would like to join this discussion.
LikeLike
Jimmy has played them like a harp, but the tv suits have walked in, drank their liquor, ate their dinner, made out with their wives, and strolled out with their wallets. Then the college guys bragged about what a great deal they made.
LikeLike
Good grief, will the B10 need to ride the NCAA coattails of the bill to Congress seeking “Fiscal Responsibility Protections” as ammendment with their the antitrust exemption ask?
Good luck Chicago Bears, you got a good one.
LikeLike
So this seems like it means that the B1G TV contract that is so much more lucrative than the one the SEC has really isn’t as valuable as it seemed? Davis Copperfield must have figured out a way to make that $$$ disappear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well when you try to cut the pie between too many people, who are competitors you get what the B1G got. A hell of a mess. This whole thing reminds me of the famous “Who’s on First” routine.
The SEC had enough problems dealing with ESPN and CBS. The B1g will still make a ton of money but it’s fans are going to freeze their butts off after November 1.
LikeLike
Akk. They have all that fancy battery-powered heated clothing nowadays.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let them eat cake!
LikeLike
Warren might want to cancel the Bears season.
LikeLike
LikeLike
We’ll, if I’m a conference commish my response to fox is ‘you’re shit outta luck’. Maybe work something out with slightly reduced payments for a short period going forward, but we ain’t issuing any refunds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That kind of hot legal take is sort of hiw the college suits from the Big10 got here in the first place.
LikeLike