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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT


March 11, 2016


Larry Scott

Pat Christenson

Dan Beckerman


Las Vegas, Nevada

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming. My name's Erik Hardenbergh from the Pac-12 Conference, and I'd like to welcome you to the commissioner's press conference. Commissioner Larry Scott will give a brief opening statement, and then we'll answer any questions. Thank you.

COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Thank you, Erik. Good afternoon. I'm excited to be here on semifinal day for the Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament. It's been a great week. I'm sure everyone feels the buzz and the energy going on around the MGM and around the Garden Arena as we get ready for our basketball games tonight.

I believe we're on the verge of the most successful basketball season that we've had certainly in terms of our depth and competitiveness of our conference. I don't think we've ever been as strong top to bottom as the conference is right now, and it's been fun to see the skill, the depth and competitiveness of our conference on display here. If you look to the beginning of the season, I think it all really started with our teams scheduling very tough. I think we've got the strongest strength of schedule amongst all the conferences this year. Big-time non-conference games our teams played and we finished with a strong winning record in non-conference season, .780 winning percentage in non-conference.

That's resulted in us having a very strong RPI this year. 11 of our 12 teams were ranked in the top 10 of the RPI, and the top 5 seeds that are going to be competing tonight in our semifinal games are all ranked in the top 25 this year. And, in fact, this is the first time that's happened since the first year of the Staples Center, 2002, was the last time that the four teams in our semifinal were all ranked teams.

So at the very top as well as throughout the conference we're going through a great period of Pac-12 basketball.

I see this continuing. The most we've ever had is six teams make the NCAA Tournament, and we very well may set a record and exceed that when selections are done on Sunday. It's a very high level of competitiveness, and we're looking forward to us having a lot of teams and them doing well in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

This is the 100th anniversary of the Pac-12 Conference, which has been an exciting year for us as we've had a chance to celebrate our history, heritage and legacy of the conference, and at the same time look forward and make exciting plans looking forward. This week is giving us an opportunity to do just that.

We've used the Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament as an opportunity to reflect back on the tremendous legacy we have in men's basketball. We created and honored an All-Century team of the 20 best players in the 10-year history of the Pac-12 Conference, and we're going to have a chance to recognize the four leading vote getters tonight on center court at halftime of the first game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sean Elliott, Gary Payton, and Nan Wooden, representing her father, are going to be honored on center court tonight, which is a really special chance to remind our fans of the tremendous heritage and legacy we have in this conference.

But as commissioner, I'm focused on what's next as well as we look forward, and we've got some exciting plans in terms of continuing with the transformation that we've been through as a conference, from expanding the conference from 10 to 12 with the successful additions of Colorado and Utah to new TV agreements that have given us unprecedented exposure on ESPN, Fox, and the Pac-12 Networks, to the revenue that's brought into our schools that's allowed them to reinvest in new coaching staffs, new facilities, support for student-athletes.

It's helped us enter a virtuous cycle across the board, not just in men's basketball, but in women's basketball as well where we've got some very strong teams and we're going to have great participation in the NCAA Tournament this year. As well as football. This may be a year where we've set new records for the most teams in postseason football. We had the most ever this year for our conference, with 10 of our 12 teams qualifying for postseason bowls, and we're expecting that we might have the most ever teams qualify in men's basketball than we had, which would put us on par with the very best conferences out there.

It's a dramatic change from where we were five years ago when we had four bowl-eligible teams, four teams qualify for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and three teams qualify for the women's NCAA basketball tournament. We've probably doubled the number of postseason participations in just that five-year period.

As we think about going forward and what next, looking at this event, which has become an incredible fan favorite, an exciting culmination to the Pac-12 season, and really a must-attend event for Pac-12 fans that want to see the best of the best and have a great season here.

We've got great momentum around this event, but we have the opportunity to evaluate what's next, this being the last year of our agreement with the MGM Grand and Las Vegas Events, to consider the future, and we've had the great opportunity to consider the possibility of working with MGM International and Las Vegas Events to consider the new facility that's being built across the street, the T-Mobile Arena.

And it gives me great pleasure to announce to you all tonight that we've decided we are going to move starting next year, as part of a three-year agreement to play the Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament at the T-Mobile Arena.

To join me in describing some more about this move and what we see are the possibilities in terms of taking this event to the next level, I'd like to invite to join me up here, the president of AEG, Dan Beckerman, and president of Las Vegas Events, Mr. Pat Christenson, our partners in this new event.

Ultimately, we were convinced that the move to T-Mobile Arena would be an exciting and natural next step and progression for this event. We've been sold out of all sessions the last two years. This year we announced that we were sold out even before the first session took place. And moving to this new 18,500-seat, state-of-the-art venue will allow more fans to have the opportunity to experience the Pac-12 basketball tournament, as well as take advantage of really state-of-the-art amenities and exciting opportunities for fans to participate in.

Additionally, as we talk to our coaches and administrators about it, the opportunity for our student-athletes to participate in what will be one of the world's great new arenas is something very exciting to them as well. And we know our fans will enjoy the opportunity to experience this.

Let me turn it over to Dan and Pat to add a few words, and all three of us will take some questions about this decision.

DAN BECKERMAN: Thank you, Larry. On behalf of our partners at MGM Resorts, I want to thank everybody for being here today. And before I get around to thanking Larry, the first thing I want to do is I want to thank Las Vegas Events and Pat Christenson and our partners at MGM Resorts, Jim Murren, Bill Hornbuckle and Rick Arpin for bringing the Pac-12 Tournament to Las Vegas a few years ago.

While we were proud to have relaunched the tournament in 2002 at Staples Center and have hosted the tournament for 11 years, I have to confess that as a Pac-12 alumni myself I enjoyed coming to Las Vegas and really being able to enjoy the event as a fan here in Las Vegas. I watched the tournament with great admiration to see how it grew and prospered over the last several years. So to me it was a natural next step to have the event moved to T-Mobile Arena.

As you look at this year, it's bursting at the seams. All of the events are sold out, and it really is overwhelming what's happening at the Grand Garden Arena. So moving to a venue with a larger capacity I think makes a lot of sense. But as Larry mentioned, it's not just the larger capacity that makes this a compelling move. The arena's going to feature state-of-the-art technology, first-class amenities and hospitality opportunities that I think make T-Mobile Arena the ideal site to showcase the great tournament that this is for the Pac-12's fans and corporate partners.

So in just under one month the new T-Mobile Arena will open, on April 6th, just across the street. We believe this arena along with MGM Resorts' development with their plaza and their park and their theater, we believe that is going to be transformational to the entertainment landscape here in Las Vegas.

When we sat down with our partners years ago and started fantasizing about this arena project, our goal always was to attract the biggest and best events in the world, from concerts and boxing and UFC, awards shows and other sporting events. But we knew that securing top-tier basketball programming was going to be our highest priority because we know that basketball is in Nevadans' blood.

So, Larry, I want to thank you and your team for selecting the T-Mobile Arena as the new home for the Pac-12 Tournament. I know this was a big decision. It's a very important decision that you and your team spent a lot of time on. We've worked together and we've spent a lot of time together, lot of time in hard hats walking the arena. I know it was an important decision, but we appreciate the choice that you've made. I want you to know that everyone at MGM Resorts and at AEG are committed to the continued growth of the tournament and of the success of the conference.

So on behalf of MGM, I want to thank you for your partnership, and we look forward to many more years together.

COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Thank you.

PAT CHRISTENSON: Thank you. Almost five years ago when we sat in front of the Pac-12 group and started talking about the Pac-12 Tournament and why it should move to Las Vegas, I look back at that day, and part of our job is to sell what we think the future is, and based on the track record of our other basketball tournaments, we felt rather confident that considering the assets, considering the strength of the Pac-12, that this would be a success also, but you never know.

So we gained the confidence of the Pac-12. We got them to move here and to bring their tournament to Las Vegas, and MGM Grand Garden proved to be the perfect venue to introduce a tournament like this. All of the things that are Las Vegas, in addition to an arena that was very, very fan friendly.

But then again, at that time I don't think we had done a basketball game in here before the Pac-12 did their tournament. So on both ends we kind of took a chance. The Pac-12 moved here, and I think up until now the rest of that is history, including the sold-out event that they had this year.

Our sole mission at Las Vegas Events is to secure events and then ensure their success. So in picking our partners, picking events that are -- one, we can secure them. We can hopefully talk anybody into coming here, but in the end are they going to be successful? In the end that's what we want. We want a long-term partnership.

When we looked at the Pac-12 and all of the things they were doing to grow, you look at their membership, the geography of their membership, but also the group itself, Larry Scott and his staff and the plan they have of promoting it, so not only did we get -- the reason we had so much confidence in the success of this event is we knew we had the schools. We knew we had the atmosphere. But the promotion of this, I don't think you can understate or overstate the promotion that the Pac-12 does for six to eight months to promote this tournament and promote Las Vegas, which has resulted in the success that we have today.

I remember back then we were thinking about, okay, what do we do if we do so well at MGM Grand Garden, what's next? We were all thinking there is a good chance that we're going to get an arena here. Well, that would be the next step. Here we are today. The arena got built. And that arena, I've been in a lot of arenas around the country, and what AEG and MGM have done is struck a perfect balance, in my opinion, a perfect balance between the fan and this premium hospitality component.

And I say that because if you look at something like Staples with five concourses, it's very, very difficult to capture the intimacy of what this new arena will have. 10,000 seats on the lower level, yet all the hospitality amenities, and the park outside, the plaza that connects it to other hotel properties and to the venue is just going to be something special.

I'm really excited about this announcement today. It allows us to continue to ensure the success of this event and grow it, and I'm very, very confident that the move will have a new event next year in the new arena, and I think we're going to strengthen this event.

So on behalf of Las Vegas Events, my board, the LVCVA, we're really excited about the announcement today to extend this partnership.

COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Thank you, Pat. So we're here today because we've got great partners. These events only happen or are successful with tremendous partnerships, and as Pat said, there was a collective vision when we started between Las Vegas Events, MGM, the Pac-12 about what this event could be. And when the tip off happens at 6:15 tonight, I think you all will feel an energy and see a fervor in the crowd that is amongst the best atmospheres anyone could ever hope for with a conference basketball tournament.

So I hope at 6:15 we'll all reflect on how this started and what's been achieved. By the same token, the three of us are telling you we've got a vision for an even bigger, better experience for our fans and student-athletes that awaits in front of us.

So with that, the three of us are happy to take any questions you have related to this move of the tournament, and then afterwards I'm happy to take questions about other topics if you have any.

Q. Larry, what was the biggest challenge when you were weighing staying or going? What ultimately tipped it?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: We went through an extensive process where we talked to coaches, our ADs were very involved. Ultimately a decision that I have to make with our board with our presidents and chancellors. But no one takes for granted having a sold-out event and the type of atmosphere and energy and excitement that's being created. So anytime you're going to make a change from that you want to give that very careful consideration.

But as part of that, we wanted to make sure that each of our schools had the chance to see firsthand themselves what's being built across the street. So this week Rick Arpin and his team hosted each of our schools' administrators that had a chance to tour the venue, and we wanted to hold off on a decision until everyone had seen it, and this decision had the unanimous support of all of our schools.

Q. I toured the arena Monday morning. It's going to be amazing for hockey. But as far as basketball goes, I know there is an ability to reconfigure seating. I saw that big curtain in the balcony. If ticket sales are not met to fill T-mobile, is the ability there to shrink the building down to make it full?
DAN BECKERMAN: We have built in to all of the buildings that we're building these days the ability to flex capacity up and down. We do so for concerts. We do so for family shows. So the building, one of the benefits of building a state-of-the-art arena is that it can have this flexibility in terms of retractable seating and curtaining systems. So it is going to have all of the features necessary to flex the capacity up and down as needed.

Q. Larry, I was wondering if you think there is anything to be said for maybe the experience that fans get of sort of connecting with the casino and it all kind of flows together and the experience. I mean, do you feel like maybe that will be a little bit lost with the new arena?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, great question. There is -- the success of this event isn't just what happens inside the Garden Arena. It's what happens outside and The District and the buzz, I think, throughout Las Vegas, but particularly around the restaurants and the pregame and postgame as well.

I think when you think about a successful event, it's broader than what happens from the opening whistle to the closing whistle. So it's something -- and this is a very unique set-up here that we appreciate.

What we're really excited about, and maybe Dan can speak to it as well is how, I think, the philosophy around the T-Mobile Arena really thinks about that experience as well, not just inside the arena, but outside the arena and how it connects to the strip and all that as well. So we've spent a lot of time talking about what's going to happen in terms of the overall fan experience and how you engage the collegiate atmosphere of this event, the bands, the cheerleaders, the mascots, the fans, and the whole pre- and postgame as well. Dan can maybe speak to that.

DAN BECKERMAN: Yeah, I think we thought a lot about that as we were designing the arena. When I remember there was a trip when Rick Arpin and Bill Hornbuckle and others were out in LA and we were working through the plan, and there was an event, I believe it might have been a hockey game that we were at, and we were looking at the plaza outside of Staples Center. There is a one-acre plaza out there which is an enormous plaza which we activate for fanfests and parades and events, and it's a great congregation space.

So when we were designing this venue, what is better than a one-acre plaza, but how about a two-acre plaza? So it was really designed with events like the Pac-12 Tournament in mind where you can really envision pep rallies and fanfests and live bands and places for people to congregate and really connect with each other between games, before games, after games.

So I think the experience will be different. But I think for Pac-12 fans it will be a fantastic experience before, during, and after the game outside in that large two-acre Toshiba Plaza.

Q. I was wondering what the vote was like with the CEOs, and when did you have it, and when was it all decided? Was it close at all?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Well, we've been socializing the concept of keeping our members up to speed on these developments and discussions for months. We held off on asking for a vote until our athletics directors and other administrators from our athletics departments had a chance to visit over the last few days, and then we moved very quickly.

So the last visits were yesterday afternoon, and within a 24-hour -- sorry, 36-hour period we were able to get the required votes.

The reason we did that in advance -- actually having board meetings here with our presidents and chancellors tomorrow, but we did that in advance because we very much wanted to announce this today because our meeting doesn't really end until tomorrow, while you are all here. And I think Erik will announce we want to give the media a chance, especially those who are in from outside Las Vegas, to see the arena while you're here. And that's the reason to get that done, to announce it today rather than tomorrow. So Erik May talk now or later about the plan for that. We very much want to be in position to do it today.

Q. Is it a majority vote?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: It was unanimous.

Q. Larry, given the great success you've had in this city so far, did you have any moments where you looked back at what happened at Staples in that size of capacity place when either Arizona wasn't playing or the LA schools weren't playing and there were many fewer fans rattling around that big building? Did that cause you any concern?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Certainly we were very focused on having this event be a big attraction for fans, having the stadium full, having that kind of energy and setting that we think is befitting of Pac-12 Tournament, what we want for the student-athletes. So that's been front and center of all of our deliberation.

And at its core, the reason we came to Las Vegas was, in addition to having great partners, a belief that we could put on an event here that would be a tremendous fan attraction regardless of whether your team was winning or not winning; that the ultimate experience was going to be a great one; and that this had the potential to be an event that you annually circle with your friends, must attend. We're going to be there because we know it's going to be a few great days of basketball. We're going to get to see our team, and we're going to have a lot of fun in Las Vegas as well. I think that was the ultimate insight that led us to want to move here.

As Pat said, of course there is a leap of faith involved in any change and any decision. But if you're working with great partners and believe in your conviction, in this case it worked out exceedingly well. The fundamentals of why we're here in Las Vegas, I think, have exceeded our expectations, frankly, and we're confident that there is more capacity. There are a lot more fans that would like to be here that we haven't been able to accommodate.

Moreover, the T-Mobile Arena is going to be a place, we believe, that fans that have been coming to the event and those who haven't been to the event are going to want to see. It's going to be an attraction and create a level of excitement that we think will grow the event from where it is today.

So it's fundamentally different from when we were in LA, in that it is Las Vegas, and Las Vegas has proven to be a fan favorite. In a way we're doubling down on being in Las Vegas and the excitement that that's created. We believe the excitement of Las Vegas, twinned with the state-of-the-art T-Mobile Arena, is going to take this event to new heights.

Q. I know in the sports world the suite sales are a big component of revenue stream. Is that a component of this new arena, and is there great value in that as well?
DAN BECKERMAN: Yeah, I think when we look to develop arenas, we really want to understand the markets where we're doing business. And I think our team with MGM and AEG I think did a great job. That's been proven out by the actual experience with the suite and the premium offerings. It's a very unique building in terms of the premium offerings in that it's not just suites, but there are suites and club seats and smaller terrace tables and boxes that we have.

I think there is a wide variety that really appeals to sort of every buyer in the market. So there is sort of a price point and offering for everyone. But it's definitely a consideration to -- in financing a project of this magnitude, a premium is an important element of it.

Q. Larry, you talk about the premium options. Was that maybe a complaint that you heard about from fans coming in, that the MGM does not have a lot of premium options or box seating and things like that?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: No, we didn't have a complaint. MGM is unique in that you've got a wide range of entertainment options right outside the Garden Arena. But when you're in the Garden Arena, you really don't have very many options at all. Everyone's in a similar boat in terms of the type of seating. This will be a different experience with an incredible array of amenities for fans and options.

So I think you'll see the type of entertainment that people are enjoying outside the Garden Arena and they come in for basketball. It will be a much more integrated experience with fans having the opportunity to see great basketball and also there will be great entertainment options within the arena itself. I think our fans will respond well.

You know, when you think about all of you follow -- most of you follow individual universities. And you know when you're schools have built new football stadium or remodelled basketball arenas they have to cater to different levels of donors and supporters. So that concept hasn't really been available, so it has been a little bit difficult for our schools to cater to kind of the different level of tiering of supporters that they have.

T-Mobile Arena will open up all kinds of possibilities for them to differentiate and take care of the different types of alumni and supporters that they have.

Q. I was just wondering, some of the coaches have actually talked a lot about how Arizona had such an advantage here with all the fans. Will it be maybe more neutral and more NCAA Tournament-like over there? Was that a factor at all in this decision?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: No. All schools are offered the same opportunity to buy tickets. Arizona has done an amazing job of marketing and proactively encouraging their fans to be here. Although every school has really over the four years that we've been here, through word of mouth and otherwise, I think, picked up. But I think Arizona has really done a tremendous job.

So this will provide more capacity for all of our schools to have more fans, but we're not planning to change any policies in terms of how we allocate tickets.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. At this time we'll dismiss Dan and Pat. Thank you very much. If anyone has any remaining basketball questions for the commissioner, we can handle those now.

Q. Obviously you guys have asked subscribers of the Pac-12 Networks to talk to their providers about the national feed. How do you feel about -- it seems like for one of the marquee events, it's not really getting through to some of the people who have switched to subscribe to your networks?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, I think Lydia Murphy-Stephans, our president, has spoken extensively about the details of the strategy and regionalization. I think there's been some misunderstanding out there. All of our fans, certainly in all six of our markets, have access to both the Pac-12 national network and Pac-12 regional network through multiple providers. There are satellite options as well as cable options.

Our fans have really responded. And in one case in Arizona where they didn't have access to the national network because Cox and others were only providing the regional network, as a result of the fan interest in it, Cox changed their policy and they agreed to carry both networks this week.

So I think what's happened this week has really showed the interest in this tournament, the desire for fans to see the Pac-12 Networks. And that when fans and consumers are heard, the power that can have with the distributors.

Our desire is for all of our providers to carry the Pac-12 national and regional network and have both those be on the basic service, but we have not been able to mandate that. So each of our providers is a little bit different in terms of which of the networks they might offer on the expanded tier and which might be on the sports tier. That's how our distributors have chosen to market it. And that's why I think you've heard Lydia and others say it's really a provider decision in terms of how they offer it to the fans.

But every provider that's got a deal with the Pac-12 Networks offers both. And I think there's been a little misunderstanding about that. It's just a question of what tier it's on and how you access it. Of course those providers that aren't currently taking -- we want every provider to have it. But every fan certainly in our six states can get the Pac-12 national network.

Q. Larry, can you explain the philosophy behind not simulcasting games on all the regional networks as in the past?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Certainly. This really dates to the original conception of when we announced that we're doing Pac-12 Networks as opposed to Pac-12 Network. We're different in terms of the way we've conceived and visioned our network which we created in conjunction with the major cable operators. For those of you who were around in July of 2011 when we announced the network, we did it side by side with Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, and Bright House. And the idea was that we were going to have an unprecedented number of events. We're the Pac-12. We're the winningest conference in the country. We win more NCAA Championships across all sports. And we wanted to offer a prolific amount of content. That was unprecedented.

So we offer 850 live events. Only 35 of those are football games, over 150 are men's basketball, and the rest are Olympic sports. In order to accommodate that many events, had to have multiple networks and multiple channels. There just aren't enough windows to offer those on one network.

So the original idea all along was that the Pac-12 Network, national network, would have every major event -- all the football games, men's basketball games, and Olympic sports events -- that were of most major national significance, and that was the purpose of the Pac-12 national network.

The regional networks, Pac-12 Los Angeles, Pac-12 Arizona, Pac-12 Bay Area, Pac-12 Oregon, Pac-12 Washington, and Pac-12 Mountain were designed to go hyper-local and offer more content for fans, whether it's replays, studio shows, post-produced shows and other events that weren't on the national network. It wouldn't make sense, long-term, to have two networks that were showing exactly the same thing. That would be illogical, and our partners would never have agreed to that.

The whole idea, and, frankly, what we are required to do, is to differentiate what's on the national network from what's on the regional network. But we were given a few years to get there with our partners. Those of you that have followed this closely may know in the first year we only had to telecast 550 live events. In year two that went to 750, in year three to 850, and in year four we've gotten to the point where there's enough content that we've essentially had to flip the switch. And there really is distinct content on the Pac-12 national and Pac-12 regional networks.

And now we're going through a process with our distributors of making sure. We'd like to make sure the national network is available on the basic service in our six-state footprint. It is what's offered to the rest of the country. If you have Pac-12 Network and you're outside our six states, you're getting the national network. You're not getting regionals. The issue that's arisen is within our six-state footprint where up until now many of the cable companies have been leading with the Pac-12 regional network on the basic service, and they've been putting the national network on the sports tier, which you have to pay extra for in some of our markets which is causing some of this friction.

We're trying to encourage our partners to flip that or put both services on the national. I know it's complicated. I know it's frustrating for the fans and we're doing the best we can to respond and explain and work with our providers. But how each distributor does it is really their decision in their market.

Q. Just following up on that, Larry. Would there be any thought going forward if you can't get those providers to flip, maybe you just revert to one station with an alternate feed and make it a little simpler that way?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: We'll always assess, but this was very much a long-term vision and view that we had, and a very complicated and dynamic industry right now. There is a lot of change going on in the media business. I will let you know that we have a 12-year agreement with the cable providers that obligates us to this architecture, so with Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Bright House that helped us launch the network and provided the underpinning financially and exposure to do it this way.

But the nature of this business is we're always sitting down with them and talking about what's working well, what's not working well, are there any changes we could make to benefit our fans. Moreover, it's a very dramatically changing industry in terms of cord cutting, in terms of technology and over-the-top options, and I suspect a few years from now we'll be sitting here with a very different scenario in terms of how we're distributing our content.

It's one of the reasons I think we've got a very forward-looking model that we have some challenges right now, but in a world where there's going to be many more options for distributing your content, including with a lot of technology providers, a lot of apps, a lot of companies getting involved that you saw AT&T announce the other day, they're going to be offering these packages without a cable box or satellite dish, anyone with broadband, we're going to be in a very good position owning and controlling our own network and having the flexibility to offer it to others.

But that's not apparent right now, but we're changing very quickly in terms of where it's going. And with the amount of content that we have and the interest in our content, I think we'll be well placed as this market continues to evolve.

Q. You talked about your obligation when it comes to your 12-year obligation with your partners on this. Are you then obligated to continue to use the Pac-12 Networks as your primary delivery engine for the basketball tournament, or do you have flexibility to farm out the coverage to a third party, like a FOX Sports One or national carrier like that that would carry the entire event instead?
COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: We do not have that flexibility. We're obligated to cover the event. So when we did our landmark agreement with ESPN and Fox, it included telecast of one quarterfinal game, one semifinal game, and the championship game at the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament, and we alternate back and forth -- one year ESPN, one year Fox. Every other game will be on the Pac-12 Networks.

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