Congratulations to Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State for making it to the 2024-2025 conference tournament semi-finals.
The Pac 12 fizzle is a case study for the GW School of Business Sports Management program.  The conference’s leadership failed to negotiate along with competing media interests.  Take for example, UC Berkeley’s (known as Cal) Chancellor Carol Christ.  GW has had its scandals in the past but nothing compares to the fiscal dread that Cal alumni and student athletes will face for a generation.  The importance of striking a lucrative media deal was an absolute necessity for the sports program’s survival.
It goes back a long way.  In 2012, Cal’s Memorial Stadium finished a $321 million renovation that transformed an old football stadium that resembled the Roman Coliseum to a facility that was up to code.  By adding a new student athlete performance center the school took on debt of $455 million.  Alumni pledges and advanced season ticket sales never materialized.  Interest alone consumes 20% of the athletic department’s annual budget.  One Berkeley business professor calculated that it will take 100 years to pay off the debt.  The venue had a nice ten year naming rights deal.  It was called FTX Field..briefly until the Sam Bankman-Fried takedown.  The stadium is mostly accessible to students on campus, but no one else.  Other than home games and a few concerts the building is empty.
Compare it to San Diego State University’s Snapdragon Stadium.  Home to the Mountain West SDSU Aztecs.  The construction cost was slightly below Memorial Stadium from ten years before.  It opened on time and through a partnership with Qualcomm is fully digital.  It’s built for college football but has amenities that you would expect from an NFL stadium. The school is enhancing revenue by bringing in professional sports and local area restaurants.   A new major league soccer franchise expansion team will start play in 2025.  It

Gusti's on the corner of 19th and M across the street from Rumors.  $1 bottles of Michelob.  For starving students at the bar free pizza squares from the restaurant.