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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/InVodkaVeritas on 2024-03-28 01:45:49.

Original Title: [Feldman, Wilner, and Mandel] The pitch to Stanford and Cal to stay in the Pac-12 was that Stanford would be the branding anchor and get final say in which teams were added. Stanford chose the ACC instead and took Cal with them.

I’m listening to the most recent Audible episode with Bruce Feldman, Stewart Mandel, and Jon Wilner having a conversation about the fall of the Pac-12. Below is a summary of the section I’m referencing rather than a direct word for word transcription because I’m not going to sit and transcribe a podcast.

You can listen here:

One of the things they said was that between the 6 schools going to the Big Ten and Big 12, and Stanford and Cal going to the ACC that Stanford and Cal were approached by Oregon State, Wazzu, and George Kliavkoff with a plan to rebuild the Pac-12. The proposal was essentially this:

  1. Stanford would be the anchor of the Pac-12 rebuild branding wise with Cal, Oregon State, and Wazzu staying as well obviously. That they would build around Stanford as their tentpole.
  2. Stanford would have their pick of the schools to rebuild with, likely starting with SMU and SDSU and going from there, building to 8-12 schools.
  3. The conference would seek a short-term media deal, likely valued in the teens, focused on rebuilding the Pac-12 brand and getting a better deal money wise next time around.

They said that to Stanford that felt too much like “The Mountain West with better Olympic sports” and took Cal with them to the ACC instead.

Mandel added that you can’t have your biggest brand be bad at football, and that Stanford sells well when they’re winning but right now they’re not winning. It would be like the ACC being led by the Miami brand next year. They sell well when they win, but when they’re not winning they’re not a good enough brand to lead a conference.

Wilner pointed out that this is why the consolidation has continued, because with the way the Big Ten and SEC are set up, even if Michigan or Alabama take a step back both conferences now have 3 or 4 other big brands that will still be championship quality. And that if you told someone three years ago that Michigan was going to win a championship they would have called you nuts, but when you have multiple good brands your conference can afford one of them to take a step back.

Feldman finished up by saying that Stanford is clearly more valuable than their deal with the ACC, but you don’t stay and try and repair sinking ship when a life raft is available, and that’s what Stanford did by taking a bad deal with the ACC. The ACC took advantage by getting a yacht for the price of a life raft.