The Pac-12’s return begins without a media day

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Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

As the college football season approaches, every FBS conference is getting set for its media days — except for the Pac-12.

Media days see conferences invite members of the press to ask questions and take photographs to build excitement for the upcoming season. Many media days will receive live television coverage. The Big 12, ACC and SEC, for example, will all have live coverage of their media days on ESPN2. Even smaller conferences will have media days in the coming weeks, though they will mostly be relegated to ESPN+ streaming.

In 2026, there will be one exception. The Pac-12, which is welcoming six new members this season, will not have a media day.

“We could have,” Pac-12 senior VP and deputy commissioner Rick Hart told Front Office Sports last month. “We talked about it. Those are expensive.”

“Traditionally, you spend a lot of money, you bring everybody together for two or three days, you disrupt camp or whatever’s going on,” Hart said. “Maybe you get the media there, maybe you don’t. Maybe you get 72 hours of publicity alongside all the other leagues that are doing media days. It’s pretty noisy. There’s a lot of static. And then everybody moves on.”

Instead of a media day, according to sources speaking to Front Office Sports, the Pac-12 will spend money saved on other promotional events throughout the upcoming season.

In the age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, there is reason to believe these media days are less important for conferences. College football is already incredibly popular; it does not need these events to make news.

But this isn’t just any year for the re-launched Pac-12. This is the season when the Pac-12 needs to prove to both fans and its member schools that it is making the right moves. If the Pac-12 wants to be seen as a power conference, it should act like one. Smaller conferences with much lower ambitions, like Conference USA and the Sun Belt, have found the money for a media day.

To be clear, a media day will not determine whether the Pac-12 succeeds. It does not really matter if the Pac-12 acts like a Power Five conference. It just needs its schools to perform well on the field.

But PR is also part of the business, and this is not a good look for a conference to start out with.

The post The Pac-12’s return begins without a media day appeared first on Awful Announcing.

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