Here’s a fun Friday news dump:
“Earlier today, the Pac-12 terminated the employment of two senior executives, effective immediately. This action was taken following an investigation conducted by independent outside legal counsel. The terminations resulted from a failure by those two executives to disclose material information to the Pac-12 Board of Directors and external Pac-12 auditors in connection with overpayments by a Pac-12 Networks distribution partner dating back to 2016.”
What evidently happened is that auditors told the two now-fired Pac-12 execs in 2017 that the Pac-12 had been overpaid, and they did nothing. Didn’t tell anybody, didn’t get it on the balance sheet as a liability, just looked around, didn’t see anybody who’d overheard, and went on with their lives. Then…
“In October 2022, the distribution partner who was the subject of the 2017 audit claimed that it had been overpaying the Pac-12 each year since prior to 2016. The distribution partner claims that the overpayments total more than $50M.”
Fifty million dollars! That’s more than each Pac-12 school’s annual media revenue!
One great question here is who the distribution partner is. Is this ESPN? FOX? A cable company?
Another great question is how the financial stuff works from here. If the Pac-12 got fifty million extra dollars, did it pass those on to its schools? If the Pac-12 wants to give the fifty million dollars back, does it have to go get it from those schools? What if USC and UCLA, who are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, say no? What if Oregon and Washington, who would like to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and could probably instantaneously leave it for the Big 12 if they got mad enough at the Pac-12, say no? Is the Pac-12 solvent enough to front fifty million dollars? Would the distribution partner try to make it do that? Would the distribution partner be incentivized to make it do that because of the real possibility that the Pac-12 does not exist in eighteen months’ time? Was a contract violated here?
A third great question (I’m full of great questions today, please recognize the greatness of my questioning) is how Amazon and the other TV/streaming options the Pac-12 is courting for their next media rights deal will react to this news. The Pac-12 didn’t find out about this and then tell the distribution partner. The Pac-12 found out about this from the distribution partner. Right as it was in the process of negotiating media rights. With the future of the conference on the existential line. Does Amazon want to sign a contract with someone who just hid fifty million dollars? What if they have to sign it on the precipice of a possible recession?
We like the Pac-12, we think Pac-12 Network broadcasts are among the best in college basketball, we would kill if Bill Walton gave us a good reason. But it would be very, very, very, … , very, very funny if the Pac-12’s ultimate demise came because two guys in suits hid fifty million dollars. If you think Todd Saliman’s bosses haven’t been trying to get a hold of Brett Yormark for 72 straight hours, you are wrong.
Notes Note (whoa, meta): I don’t know if this is securities fraud. But it’s fraud, right? Someone was lying? About money?
Gonzaga to the NIT? And Why Do I Keep Getting Calls From Orlando?
Say what you will about the NIT, but the Game of the NITe of the Weekend totaled 89 more points than UCLA and Arizona did. That’s almost twice the points of the other tournament’s biggest game this Saturday. *scoffing like you’ve never heard someone scoff before* And the people in power want you to believe the NIT isn’t exciting.
The question for Gonzaga going down to Stockton (I knew I knew where Pacific was—my apologies, Pacific fans) was whether they could make the NIT. The resounding answer was that they can. You know who’s allowed Pacific to score 90 this year? North Dakota, North Dakota State, and Gonzaga. That’s it. No, the North Dakota schools aren’t chasing the NIT themselves, Oral Roberts has the Summit League pretty well wrapped-up at this point, but the point is that Gonzaga’s not playing a lick of defense, and that’s going to get them beat by more teams than just Saint Mary’s. In the WCC, traditionally, getting beat by more teams than just Saint Mary’s portends free fall. They’re following tradition out there this year.
We thought we had a good NIT developing, but it turns out, we have a great one. Gonzaga is on the warpath. And we’re behind them every step of the way.
Side note on Oral Roberts, since we mentioned them: They’re ranked 69th in KenPom right now. I’ll let you make whatever level of joke you want to on that, since we mentioned them.
Oh and the Orlando thing: I just keep getting calls from Orlando phone numbers. Four calls in the last five days, as they took Sunday off, evidently being a city of God. Two of the calls were from the same number, two were from similar but distinct numbers. The worst case here is that I owe somebody money. The best case here is that officials for whatever entity is hosting the Orlando games of the NCA* *********t heard me talking shit and want to fight me. They won’t leave a voicemail, which makes me think it’s highly illegal stuff they’re trying to do. I’m going to keep ignoring the calls, but we’re upping our security on Fargo. Might have to get our dog a guard dog.
That Tulsa Timeout Fiasco
Another of our Ten Teams Who Could Win the NIT™, Tulane, finally lost to a team who isn’t the best team in the country, but not before a Tulsa player got too excited at the end of overtime and traveled after forcing a steal with one second left. On the second attempt, Tulane didn’t score anyway, but it was a good bit of AAC basketball, and an unfortunate sign that Tulane may be receding into the depths of that sad, withering league. We’ll give the Wave another game to figure it back out, but after that, we’re considering adding West Virginia to our list.
(by the way we replaced Notre Dame with Gonzaga in our Ten Teams Who Could Win the NIT™ list because Notre Dame responded to Mike Brey’s announced retirement by getting even worse)
The Sens Are Toast
Josh Norris is going to have shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season. I don’t know enough to know what a “subluxation” is, but hopefully he didn’t make the original injury worse by playing through it. That would stink. His season’s over, and the Sens’ probably is too, since they’re tied for seventh place in the Atlantic and 14th in the Eastern Conference and the year is more than halfway done. Ridly Greig’s up, but you get the feeling heads are gonna roll soon, and not just from Ridly Greig kicking NHL ass with his fists. People are going to get fired. Right? (I always say “Right?” at the end of Sens and Burnley blurbs because I don’t actually know what’s happening. Little trick of the trade, there.)
**
The menu for today:
9:00 PM EST: New Mexico @ Nevada (CBSSN)
Credit to the Mountain West, they’re having another spectacularly fun year. UNLV splattered the toilet and hasn’t gotten off it yet, but there are still five teams in the race for the league title, and all five of them could make the NIT with the right combination of Tim Miles upsets. (Have I written a Tim Miles fan fiction where San José State wins the Mountain West tournament in order to send all his friends to the NIT? No. Sadly. If I’d written that, you’d have it in your inbox.)
6:30 PM EST: Wisconsin @ Northwestern (BTN)
You can tell the Big Ten’s pissed at Northwestern for not playing through their Covid-induced athlete shortage because they rescheduled the two games such that the Wildcats now play five games in eleven days where they previously only played three. That is an exasperated move by the Big Ten, and it’s likely the start of Northwestern disintegrating. The only question is whether Chris Collins’s good December (by which I mean they won that one game in East Lansing) keeps him around for another year.
Major apologies to New Mexico and Nevada but after writing this out, this has to be our Game of the NITe.
7:00 PM EST: Duke @ Virginia Tech (ESPN)
Duke isn’t on the NIT radar, but a guy can dream. Virginia Tech’s on the NIT radar. We didn’t know how they’d respond to getting Hunter Cattoor back, but the answer they chose—losing two more games to drop to 1-7 in ACC play—was brilliant. We honestly did not think of that possibility. These guys haven’t won a game since December 17th. The Hokies are Pokieing (there is no good way to spell that word).
8:00 PM EST: Hawks @ Bulls (NBA TV)
Maybe the Bulls should’ve followed Michael Jordan’s lead and hung ‘em up after 1998.
