This is such a bad look for Canzano and even Wilner. Both have been pointing to March 21st as an almost magical day. “Dominoes will start to fall on Tuesday”, gushed Canzano.

Then on Monday the U of U President goes on Bill Riley’s radio show, “We are in solidarity but still have a ways to go on the media deal.”

The Forbes guy says on a podcast he cannot see anyway possible for linear broadcasts to be 50% or higher. “There simply aren’t enough time slots. Even if ESPN is a big player, most games will end up on ESPN +.”

Then rumors from SBJ and the NY Post about ESPN either not talking anymore or lowballing the PAC.

Meanwhile, why cancel such a monumental meeting? One with all the PAC CEOs present?
All anxious to wrap things up?

Is it because there is nothing to discuss? Deals either too low, too bad, or nonexistent?

My mission president hated the term “problem missionary”. He’d always say, Elder Jones is a challenge. Never, Elder Jones is a problem.

I think that’s what Utah’s president did Monday. “Still a ways to go” is political speech for “problems” but sounds better as a “challenge”.

President Robbins (U of A) didn’t help at all with his 1) We love the P12; we want to remain united but also 2) I have friends in the B12; getting into Texas would be good for us; Stillwater is only a 2 hour flight; we can drive to Lubbock from Tucson, etc.

And then he seemingly put pressure on Kliavkoff with his “We need 50% of the games to NOT be streaming.”

And then yesterday the meeting was canceled?? What? Why?

Robbins either has loose lips or he’s calculating? Yes we want to remain in solidarity BUT I have B12 friends and we’re gonna need to be on cable/satellite at least half the time. Was he talking fast and loose? Or paving a path to… “Well we have no other choice; we had to leave.”

Wilner was very terse with his tweet yesterday, “There was no meeting.” He offered no excuse. No explanation. That’s not his style. He’s smooth and adept at painting positive pictures.

Another notable observation….last week the PAC really seemed to rally around each other, mostly to contradict Dodd’s article. Many school presidents and AD’s spoke out. Utah’s leadership tweeted, “Give me a break.” All effective at calming the stormy seas. Yet….silence from Oregon. Silence from Washington. Crickets from Stanford and Cal.

Standing in solidarity? I don’t see it.