The Reckoning

Berkeley Chancellor Christ is saying there won't be consequences of the breakup of the Pac-12 on her watch. The only problem is that her watch ends in June, i.e., before the consequences arise. From the San Francisco Chronicle: 

Midway through a Zoom news conference [on September 1] about joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ fielded the question on many people’s minds: Could the financial concessions the Bears made to remain at the Power 5 level force them to cut sports? “There is no cutting of sports,” Christ said. “At least on my horizon.” Christ is set to step down in June 2024, just two months before Cal and Stanford enter the ACC. Her answer Friday seemed to leave open the possibility that the Bears could eliminate some athletic programs once they endure the financial fallout of ACC membership.

After the Aug. 4 announcement of the impending departure of five schools from the Pacific-12 Conference meant the league was on the brink of collapse, Cal and Stanford scrambled for a new conference. With time running low, and other Power 5 leagues expressing little interest, the schools made a significant sacrifice to land ACC invites: They would only receive a 30% share of TV revenue during their first seven years in the league. This was a particularly notable concession for Cal, which has the largest athletic-department debt among U.S. public universities. With travel expenses about to skyrocket in a league that spans the Eastern seaboard, and all current ACC members benefiting financially from expansion, Cal — and, to a lesser extent, Stanford — face a critical next 11 months. 

Both schools focused the past four weeks on finding someplace, anyplace, that would let them remain at college sports’ highest level. With that much now assured, Cal and Stanford must decide how to maximize student-athletes’ experience while competing in a conference with “Atlantic Coast” in its name...

UCLA and USC, which join the Big Ten next summer, reportedly plan to mitigate travel concerns by spending eight figures annually on improved mental health support, academic tutoring and flight arrangements. Charter planes have long been reserved for a small number of teams, but they could become commonplace even for those schools’ Olympic sports teams. This is possible because UCLA and USC are about to make between $65 million and $75 million per year in Big Ten media-rights revenue, well more than double what they were receiving in the Pac-12. Cal and Stanford don’t have such a luxury. They each will only earn about $8 million annually in ACC TV money for seven years. Some of the cash they forgo will be used to defray travel costs for the conference’s other members...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/college/article/stanford-cal-sports-acc-18343327.php.

The article goes on to ponder the fate of the non-football sports that are not money makers. But, as Christ notes, that fate will be on the watch of her successor(s).