I guess we didn’t impress sports illustrated….

[snommismr]

Their current bowl projections have us skipping bowl season….

SI Link

Somehow Arizona makes the Sun bowl.   They have us, oregon state, UCLA, and Cal missing bowls.  

[RiseasUtes]

It’s alright, we have an extremely tough schedule(on paper) and we aren’t going to get the attention that a USC or Oregon is.  Our defense was very impressive(regardless of who we played) and they will get more attention as the season goes on.

[Tony (admin)]

Winning solves everything.

[Utah]

That’s what I LOVE about the PAC-12. If we have another 2008, we will be undisputed national champions. Just win baby!

[Duhwayne]

No way they watched the game. Doubtful they’ve read anything either. They’re just projecting brands.

Actually this is why we need to win this year and win big next year. Chord cutting is going to put even more pressure on tv revenue and that’s going to force conferences to evaluate their rosters. I used to think 64 team league but I think it could become 48 pretty easy. The likes of ESPN would love to own the contract with that league. Netflix or Amazon could outbid pretty easy. P12N could become BYUTv in those negotiations. I think we need to be in the top half of that in performance to stay in.

[Utah]

I completely disagree. No one wants the NFL part duex. You pair down to 48 teams, that means 4 twelve team conferences. The PAC-12 won’t cut teams because of their whole “it’s about academics” mantra. Also, no one will force the PAC-12 to do anything with LA, Seattle, Phoenix markets  

I think the other four would cut teams, but the competition increases immensely. 

Alabama doesn’t want to play 12 P5 games. Clemson doesn’t want to play 12 P5 games. They don’t want to have the SEC champ finish with 3 losses every year. At that point, you’ve just become a s**tty NFL or triple A baseball. No one wants to watch that. 

They will expand the playoffs to get that money. 8 teams, all P5 champs, 3 addtl teams. 

[TheJuggernaut]

Online platforms aren’t quite there yet, but by the time the current conference tv contracts begin to expire in the mid 2020’s the cord cutters are going to have real options as far as live sports. We won’t see teams getting $50M a year like the Big Ten is now, but there won’t be a shortage of cash, and the PAC12 isn’t going to be dropping anybody (I can’t say the same for other conferences). Live sports will always be a huge financial draw.

[Duhwayne]

Utah, that assumes the PAC12 stays a conference. If ESPN can set up a conference with the top half of each of the PAC12 and Big XII, they capture all the big markets, the best brands and (assuming similar deals to what they have with other P5s), half the ownership of the payout at the conference network as well as at the network level. That conference would capture LA, Bay Area, Texas, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix and all other major markets in between. That’s basically everything west of the SEC and Big Ten, which ESPN already partially owns. I think this is the last step in consolidation left. The P12 is more vulnerable than we want to admit, largely because Larry couldn’t land DTV and the payout is relatively depressed. Dont Don’t think for a minute that California schools don’t notice. If USC and Texas could take a disproportional share at 80 mn each, why wouldn’t they do it and demand that the tagalongs accept it or miss out. What would stop them? If you’re the AD at either and were approached and didn’t do it, you should be fired. Screw Pullman, Corvallis and Tucson. Hopefully not Salt Lake. Shave off Vandy and Wake Forest and three each from the other three and you’re to 48. Total payout per team goes north even with more profits retained at the network. Ad revenues go up too because you just captured major college football. Hell, add a playoff and goose the eyeballs even more. Screw the bowls. In fact, make the bowls bid with tax subsidies to host the playoff games. Only way we stay in is if we have a run like last decade I think.

[TheJuggernaut]

I’d be surprised if they dropped Utah in this scenario, even if our football program went into the crapper. Salt Lake City is currently the #34 tv market in the US, and is growing rapidly. I would think they’d keep Salt Lake City, which is a bigger market than Austin or Oklahoma City (although obviously those markets cover bigger football brands than Utah), and in 5-6 years when the tv contracts start coming up and conference expansion begins heating up Salt Lake City will likely be a top 30 US market.

[Duhwayne]

I share your hope. ESPN’s or any mass buyer’s priority tracks the distributed population:

I hope that dot around SLC is enough.

[tarheelute]

Other projections are more optimistic on Utah

CBS: Alamo Bowl Dec. 28 San Antonio, Tex. Big 12 vs. Pac-12 Texas vs. Utah (Winning the south, losing to WA)
https://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/bowls/predictions

ESPN Sherman: Valero Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Utah San Francisco Bowl: Bonagura: Utah vs. Michigan
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/24568867/college-football-bowl-projections-week-1

USA Today: Sun Bowl: FSU vs. Utah
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/09/05/bowl-projections-college-football-playoff-wisconsin-grabs-spot/1193108002/

247Sports: San Franciso Bowl: Northwestern vs. Utah
https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/Bowl-projections-college-football-after-Week-1-121337425/

Dallas News Sportsday: Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Utah
https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesports/2018/09/04/bowl-projections-oklahoma-headed-cfp-texas-am-texas-bowl-game-collision-course