Waiting for Media Rights Deal, Pac-12 Considers Filling Ted Lasso Time Slot

Apple streaming, according to multiple reports, is the leader in conference negotiations.

For those of you awaiting a Pac-12 media rights deal, while no contracts have been signed it appears an answer has surfaced — you got stuck with Ted Lasso.

ESPN and FOX will broadcast  SEC and Big Ten football games and other sporting activity on easy-to-find networks. The Big 12 and ACC will turn up on the dial somewhere if you keep searching hard enough.

The Pac-12?

The conference appears headed to the broadcast anonymity of Apple TV streaming, which is best known for serving up a show, popular for sure, in which an American football coach goes overseas to direct an English soccer team — without any experience whatsoever for his new assignment.

Sort of like George Kliavikoff, a man with a casino entertainment background, being given the job of Pac-12 commissioner.

The Apple disclosure was floated to Pac-12 conference representatives and then to the public on Tuesday, according to several media outlets, foremost ESPN.

The immediate reaction: this could easily dismantle the conference. 

Already its remaining teams — the  University of Washington included — have been barraged by concerned recruits wanting answers on how much exposure they can expect if they joined one of the conference teams.

Apple is a subscription service, not even Nexflix for that matter, and likely inaccessible for if not unwanted by a lot of people who much prefer standard broadcast options. At this point, Kalen DeBoer can only assure his recruiting targets they'll get plenty of network attention ... in a bowl game.

While Kliavkoff has had USC, UCLA and Colorado flee what appears to be a sinking ship taking on a lot of Pacific Ocean water, the UW has to be scrambling and making all sorts of contingent plans right now in anticipating worst-case scenarios.

The NCAA hasn't lost a major conference since the Southwest went up in flames 27 years ago over rampant cheating, sending its member schools looking for soft places to land.

This could be a similar scenario, with ineptitude if not ignorance rather than unbridled rules infractions, breaking up a long-established league that was geographically friendly to everyone involved.

Apple appears to have some open broadcast slots — Ted Lasso just completed its third and supposedly final season.

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