Get ready for more Pac-12 basketball?

Yes, I'm calling it the Pac-12. We might as well, right? Sure, the name change, spurred on by last year's realignment additions of Colorado and Utah, won't be official until July. But it's a big step for everyone involved, this name change, and it's probably time to begin acclimating ourselves to the new-look league.

Turns out, the numeric name change isn't the only thing the Pac-10 -- er, Pac-12 -- has going for it. According to the Associated Press and the Sports Business Journal, the conference has agreed to a new 12-year joint television contract with Fox and some small network called ESPN, one that will "more than triple its media rights fees and be the most valuable for any conference in college sports."

This has a lot to do with football, of course, as would any money- or TV-related development in the modern college sports landscape. But it does mean a good deal for Pac-12 basketball, too. In 2010-11, when the Pac-10 was making a downright paltry $60 million for its TV rights, the league televised a total of 59 men's basketball games to "national, regional and local audiences." A whopping 51 of those games were on Fox Sports Network. Five were televised on CBS, and three were televised on ESPN or ESPN2. In other words, fans looking for national Pac-10 hoops broadcasts were often left searching their cable boxes for their local FSN affiliate, and it was easy for the casual fan living outside Pac-10 country to miss seeing the likes of Arizona forward Derrick Williams for large portions of the season.

We don't know the exact breakdowns of the new (and still-unfinished) TV deal, but if the deal means even slightly more face time for the Pac-12 on national broadcasts -- even an occasional timeslot following the biggest matchups from the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC on ESPN -- it should serve as a boost for the conference's hoops profile.

In any case, the reported deal seems to translate roughly to "more basketball on TV," and "more basketball on TV," regardless of the network, is always a good thing. That goes for the conference itself, but it also applies to the fans.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/30495/get-ready-for-more-pac-12-basketball

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