The PAC-12 conference apparently might be on the verge of some serious financial trouble.
The Mercury News reported the following details on financial reports and projections for the Power Five conference:
Net revenue was expected to rise by approximately five percent year-over-year, based on the conference’s initial budget projections (shown below) for the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years.
However, operating expenses were expected to rise 15 percent over that same period.
Updated numbers for FY18, identified in the ‘forecast’ column in the document, indicate operating expenses would rise by six percent year-over-year, with net revenue increasing by just two percent.
In either case, expenses were expected to rise at three times the rate of the net revenue increase.
I’d encourage you guys to read the full report. It’s fascinating the situation the PAC-12 currently finds itself in. (RELATED: The Pac-12 Network Is Paying Out Less Than $3 Million Annually To Schools In The Conference)
Let’s also not forget, this news comes on top of reports the conference’s TV deal is at best disappointing and at worst an absolute disaster. Things appear to be spiraling out of control for the once proud conference.
How is this even possible? The conference is home to USC and UCLA. Those two programs alone should be able to draw and generate enough attention to stop any potential problems.
Add in Oregon, Standard, Cal, Arizona and Arizona State, and you’ve got a solid group of programs. Yet, they apparently haven’t done enough at all to stop the program.
We’re talking about USC! They’re one of the most premier programs in all of college football. Any conference tied to them shouldn’t be struggling at all.
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The PAC-12 is supposed to be an elite conference full of great teams. For reasons I just don’t understand, they’re utterly failing.
The teams don’t live up to the hype and now we’re learning there are serious financial concerns. It makes no sense at all, but the people running the show out west better figure it out sooner than later.
We’ll see if the PAC-12 is able to save the sinking ship or if they’re doomed to meet a dark fate. Right now, I don’t have a ton of optimism.