ESPN insider assesses the Pac-12's 'brutal' loss of USC, UCLA

The additions of USC and UCLA will reportedly be an incredibly profitable pairing between them and the Big Ten. The Pac-12, though, is about to feel the serious effects of losing two of their best programs. It’s bad enough that the competition level will notably drop after their departure. ESPN’s Pete Thamel says it’s even more cruel because of the timing.

Thamel appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show to talk about the aftermath of this decision. He says the loss of the Trojans and Bruins could cause significant losses when it comes to the conference’s next TV deal.

“I really think if you’re the Pac-12 right now, the move is brutal in so many ways. You not only lose your two best teams, you lose them on the cusp of your new television deal and you lose them to one of your longtime TV partners who [is] going to buy the rights to the most valuable games in your time zone,” said Thamel. “It’ll be interesting to see how much more value USC and UCLA bring to the Big Ten deal. I would think the Pac-12 deal — and this is just a guess from covering these things over the years — is at least going to cut 40% into what the Pac-12 can now get. It’s probably going to be more.”

Procuring a new TV deal was at the forefront for Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff. This loss cost him a lot of leverage in those negotiations. Thamel believes it may cost them a deal altogether with interest mounting for other conferences. Even if it does come together, he thinks the deal could lean towards certain schools to ensure no one else leaves the conference.

“If you are Fox, which obviously has been widely reported as heading to get the Big Ten deal, what’s your incentive to invest big in the Pac-12 right now? There’s very little incentive to do that,” Thamel said. “I think the next two best brands in that league — athletic-wise, obviously — are Oregon and Washington. Washington has the better market, Oregon has more recent success. Are they in a hurry to go somewhere? Does the Pac-12 deal have to be unfairly weighted to them to keep them happy? Stanford is probably the best brand in the Bay Area. They’ve been in a slump in football. They are still in a really, really attractive market although they may not resonate as much.”

The decision is still so current that there’s no saying what’s next for the Pac-12. What is expected, though, is that it could cost the conference and its teams a substantial amount of money. That could then snowball to it costing the Pac-12 even more of their teams. No matter what it means in the future, Thamel says it will all get traced back to USC and UCLA’s withdrawl.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it or overstate it. Today is a terrible day in the history of the Pac-12, which is now, again, the Pac–10.”