Business of Sports – Pac-12 Commissioner looking into selling data as source of revenue

LAS VEGAS — The Pac-12 is considering ways to turn ownership of its statistics into a source of revenue, with the university presidents and chancellors expected to discuss the issue here Saturday at the annual March board meeting.

“Data is part of media rights, and media rights is one of the issues at the top of our agenda with the board,” Pac-12  commissioner George Kliavkoff said Thursday.

“We will certainly discuss data rights as part of that package.”

The path to cash has already been lit, in a sense.

Earlier this week, the Mid-American Conference announced a partnership with Genius Sports, which will manage the league’s statistics in all sports and broker deals with any gambling companies that want access to the MAC’s real-time data.

Those companies would have to pay the MAC for the use of its statistics, creating revenue for the league to distribute to its membership.

“We’re doing this to control our data, which ends up in the public domain anyway,” MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher told ESPN. “We want to manage that asset. We want that asset to provide value back to our institutions so that we can support our student-athletes, plain and simple.”

(The NFL also has a deal with Genius Sports, which is based in London.)

Online and mobile sports wagering is legal, albeit with some restrictions, in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington but not Utah or California.

Other noteworthy items from Kliavkoff’s news conference at T-Mobile Arena:

— Kliavkoff has adopted a no-comment policy with regard to the stalled the College Football Playoff expansion talks.

The Pac-12 joined the Big Ten and ACC in voting against CFP expansion, each for different reasons. At this point, a 12-team event is unlikely before the 2026 season.

The next time he comments publicly “will be to announce a new format,” Kliavkoff said.

— The Pac-12 has started the process of locating a new home for the conference office and the Pac-12 Networks.

Options seemingly include remaining in the Bay Area (but not in San Francisco), Los Angeles, Las Vegas and perhaps another location.

Kliavkoff said that issue also will be discussed Saturday at the CEO meeting.

— The conference played all 120 men’s basketball conference games despite the majority of teams going on multi-week COVID pauses.

There were 17 games rescheduled; each team played 10 home and 10 away games.

“The fact that we got all those rescheduled … is, frankly, miraculous,” Kliavkoff said.

— The need to play make-up games early in the week — so they don’t interfere with the Thursday-Saturday travel rotation — has sparked discussion about using Monday and Tuesday as part of the regular schedule.

“It has opened our eyes,” said deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich, who oversees men’s basketball.

He expects the head coaches to discuss “creative ideas to leverage more days of the week.”

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