Cesmat – Jon Wilner honored among best national beat writers

Jon Wilner of the Pac-12 Hotline, which we carry here on Sports360az, was named this week as one of 10 finalists to be honored for national beat writing in 2023 by the Associated Press Sports Editors, capping what was a wild and wide-ranging year in reporting on the flailing conference and the large-scale changes throughout college sports.

The Hotline covered it all in more than 450 stories over the year, reporting each twist and turn in the realignment saga, leading to 10 schools departing the conference, leaving Washington State and Oregon State scrambling for cover. Then, Wilner sorted through the rubble for clues about what comes next while breaking down the most exciting Pac-12 football season in the league’s history.

He is one of only three reporters to be honored for best beat writing in the A division in each of the past two years after breaking the news in 2022 that USC and UCLA were leaving the conference, beginning the Pac-12’s crumble.

The submission for the award featured five stories of Wilner’s from last year, ranging from his breakdown in the immediate aftermath of the Pac-12’s dissolution to piecing together how the Pac-12 Networks ended up receiving overpayment from Comcast, and why the overpayment grew into a scandal.

The other stories that earned Wilner the recognition were a September report uncovering documents that changed the tenor of Washington State and Oregon State’s lawsuit against the departing schools, an analysis of the 12 biggest steps that led the conference to its bitter end and a thought experiment looking a decade into the future at how realignment may bring the Pac-12 back together again.

The winner and runner-up of the 2023 APSE honor are expected to be announced in mid-April. By then, the Hotline will be well on its way to a new iteration of itself, covering college athletics across conferences through Wilner’s analytical lens right here on Sports360az