Amid a leisurely moment watching football on TV with some of his players after meetings the other night, University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich was reminded of the duality of the Pac-12 Network for UH.
“It was enjoyable to watch their (Washington State-Montana State) game,” Rolovich said. “But (the thought of the other side of the coin) kinda popped into my head, to be honest with you.”
On one hand the conference’s in-house network gives him a chance to check out its teams and games. On the other, it not only makes it easier for Pac-12 members to sell Hawaii recruits on leaving the state by making their games available, it pumps additional money into their programs.
The Rainbow Warriors’ 11 a.m. game Saturday at UCLA on the Pac-12 Network will be available to most viewers here on Spectrum, Hawaiian Telcom, Dish, Sling TV and fuboTV and in several mainland markets where the network is carried.
So, unlike UH’s season opener on something called Eleven Sports and streamed by the University of Massachusetts, or last week’s ill-fated streaming attempt through a new Mountain West app, the UH-UCLA game will be widely available to constituencies that matter to UH.
The Pac-12 Network celebrated its fifth anniversary last month and said it carries 850 sports contests from the conference, including 35 football games, and original programming. The network includes one national and seven regional channels, including Pac-12 Los Angeles, which is devoted to UCLA and USC content.
Until the network came along, UH used to be able to tell prospective recruits in Hawaii that their families would be limited in their ability to see them play unless they shelled out a fortune to attend the games.
It was a card UH especially played in the case of recruiting rivals outside of big media markets. But through the Pac-12’s TV deals, if its top-tier partners, ESPN and Fox, aren’t carrying the game, the Pac-12 Network will.
The Pac-12 Network will also show San Diego State and Arizona State on Saturday.
In Hawaii, the network coverage not only impacts football but other sports, including women’s basketball. That’s part of how Washington State has built a long-running pipeline here.
Cougars coaches credit the Pac-12 Network for allowing family members to see most or all their games.
The Pac-12 Network, unlike those of the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, is wholly owned by the conference’s 12 members. And while Pac-12 revenues are said to lag behind the two rival conferences, they still manage to provide an additional $2.5 million to each member, according to a San Jose Mercury News estimate. That’s on top of about $27 million each from ESPN, Fox and other sources.
To put that in perspective, UH is to receive approximately $2.4 million for all its TV rights this year and it is better off than many other Mountain West teams.
The difference in rights fees between the two leagues, especially when built up over a number of years, makes for a significant pile of cash to plow into facilities, coaches’ salaries, recruiting budgets — all trappings of a successful program.
This is the one weekend this season in which the Pac-12 Network will be telling UH’s story. It would help if the Rainbow Warriors make it a compelling one.