The Morning Stake | 2020.04.28

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Podcasts. Check out your guys, Spencer and Michael, on 23 Personnel Podcast, a Texas Tech athletics podcast where food and sports clash at the goal line, as well as Keith Patrick and Dinger Derby, the only, yes only, podcast about Texas Tech baseball.

The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner is a terrific Pac-12 writer and he writes about how there are some smart people who think that if college sports can just hang on for a bit there stands to be a massive cash infusion for Power Five athletic departments. The expert thinks that the expansion of the College Football Playoff (if and when it happens) will be highly lucrative and the next round of media rights is going to be significant:

The next round of media rights deals will bring massive cash to the Power Five, as well.

Navigate’s latest projections call for an increase in value of 50-to-100 percent.

“The next set of TV deals, we believe, will be enriched, not harmed, by what’s happening right now — that shift toward home (viewing),’’ Maestas said.

“We’re about to release projections, and it’s roughly a 50-to-100 percent jump in TV money for all the conferences other than the ACC; they’re just stuck in a very long deal.

“This return to a new normal (after Covid-19) — these universities won’t be down for long. All those deals come up in the next four or five years. That means every major Power Five will take another significant step forward in their budgets.”

I kind of tend to agree, that I don’t think what we are going through will spell the end for college athletics, but if programs can hold on until things start getting worked out, everything will be okay and down the road, fans will absolutely be excited about the prospect of sports in general.

Speaking of just holding on, Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams writes about how the Texas Tech athletic department will reduce its annual operating budget by $6.7 million with about one-fourth coming from coaches forgoing bonuses:

The cutbacks come in response to the sports-world shutdown related to the coronavirus pandemic and follows actions other universities big and small have taken over the past month to deal with a business slowdown.

“We’re looking at planning and preparation and putting into place a budget that prepares us for decreases in revenue from what we project to be an economic downturn,” Hocutt told A-J Media, “and then also any possible fan apprehension about gatherings that may be on the heels of this virus.”

Hocutt cautioned the $6.7 million cutback is based on the assumption of a normal 12-game regular season in football, which is not a given with no clear-cut time frame for a return to play.

Hocutt said more drastic measures, including pay cuts and restructuring debt service, will be considerations if the shutdown carries into football season.

I think that Hocutt is saying all of the right things here. There’s a ton of uncertainty and it’s tough to plan for uncertainty. I’m still pretty hopeful that things work out, although I know that’s a bit of fool’s gold. I’d also add that at the end of the article, Hocutt discusses the price of oil and how that could affect how people donate, so that’s being taken into consideration as well. There are no easy answers, but the best thing is that I do believe there are some smart people who are trying to figure out the best way forward.

A new episode of Typical Tech with Wes Welker and Jordyn Brooks.

RedRaiderSports has two Q&A’s with 2020 football signees and you have linebacker Derrick Lewis, II and running back Tahj Brooks.

Here are some tweets.

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