The Federal Trade Fee these days released a new Office environment of Technologies that will bolster the FTC’s ability to hold pace with technological issues in the electronic market by supporting the agency’s regulation enforcement and plan work.
“For extra than a century, the FTC has labored to maintain pace with new marketplaces and ever-switching systems by making interior experience,” reported Chair Lina M. Khan. “Our place of work of know-how is a organic upcoming move in ensuring we have the in-household abilities necessary to totally grasp evolving systems and industry tendencies as we continue on to tackle unlawful organization procedures and secure People.”
The Office of Technology will have committed personnel and resources, and will be headed by Main Technological innovation Officer Stephanie T. Nguyen.
“I’m honored to direct the FTC’s Office of Engineering at this critical time to reinforce the agency’s technological skills and satisfy the immediately evolving troubles of the electronic overall economy,” explained Nguyen. “I look ahead to continuing to do the job with the agency’s proficient staff and developing our workforce of technologists.”
The Business office of Technological know-how will improve the FTC’s experience to assistance the company realize its mission of guarding consumers and advertising competitiveness. Specifically, the new office environment will:
Bolster and assist regulation enforcement investigations and actions: The business office will support FTC investigations into small business practices and the systems fundamental them. This features serving to to establish suitable investigative strategies, assisting in the overview and examination of information and paperwork acquired in investigations, and aiding in the creation of efficient treatments.
Advise and have interaction with staff members and the Fee on policy and research initiatives: The business will get the job done with FTC personnel and the Commission to provide technological expertise on non-enforcement steps which include 6(b) experiments, experiences, requests for information, plan statements, congressional briefings, and other initiatives.
Spotlight industry tendencies and rising technologies that effect the FTC’s get the job done: The business office will have interaction with the community and external stakeholders via workshops, exploration conferences, and consultations and emphasize essential developments and ideal tactics.
The generation of the Business office of Technological know-how builds on the FTC’s efforts over the decades to increase its in-dwelling technological know-how, and it provides the agency in line with other major antitrust and consumer protection enforcers all-around the earth.
The Fee voted 4- to approve the generation of the Office of Technological know-how.
Psychedelics go beneath the cell surface to unleash their potentially therapeutic consequences.
These medicines are displaying guarantee in clinical trials as remedies for mental wellbeing disorders (SN: 12/3/21). Now, scientists might know why. These substances can get inside nerve cells in the cortex — the mind region important for consciousness — and notify the neurons to increase, researchers report in the Feb. 17 Science.
Numerous psychological wellness situations, such as despair and submit-traumatic stress dysfunction, are tied to serious pressure, which degrades neurons in the cortex around time. Researchers have long believed that repairing the cells could provide therapeutic rewards, like decreased panic and improved mood.
Science Information headlines, in your inbox
Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your e-mail inbox each Thursday.
Thank you for signing up!
There was a trouble signing you up.
Psychedelics — which include psilocin, which comes from magic mushrooms, and LSD — do that fixing by endorsing the progress of nerve mobile branches that get facts, referred to as dendrites (SN: 11/17/20). The behavior might explain the drugs’ good outcomes in exploration. But how they set off mobile progress was a mystery.
It was currently recognized that, in cortical neurons, psychedelics activate a sure protein that receives alerts and presents directions to cells. This protein, termed the 5-HT2A receptor, is also stimulated by serotonin, a chemical created by the human body and implicated in temper. But a examine in 2018 established that serotonin doesn’t make these neurons increase. That obtaining “was seriously leaving us scratching our heads,” states chemical neuroscientist David Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics at the College of California, Davis.
To determine out why these two sorts of chemicals have an impact on neurons differently, Olson and colleagues tweaked some substances to transform how properly they activated the receptor. But people much better equipped to change it on didn’t make neurons expand. In its place, the staff seen that “greasy” substances, like LSD, that simply go as a result of cells’ fatty outer layers resulted in neurons branching out.
Polar chemical compounds such as serotonin, which have inconsistently distributed electrical prices and as a result simply cannot get into cells, did not induce progress. Even more experiments showed that most cortical neurons’ 5-HT2A receptors are positioned within the cell, not at the surface area where by experts have predominantly researched them.
But after serotonin attained access to the cortical neurons’ interior — via artificially extra gateways in the mobile surface area — it way too led to advancement. It also induced antidepressant-like effects in mice. A working day after acquiring a surge in serotonin, animals whose brain cells contained unnatural entry details did not give up as rapidly as ordinary mice when forced to swim. In this test, the for a longer time the mice tread water, the a lot more efficient an antidepressant is predicted to be, showing that within obtain to 5-HT2A receptors is critical for achievable therapeutic consequences.
“It appears to overturn a large amount about what we think need to be real about how these medicine get the job done,” states neuroscientist Alex Kwan of Cornell University, who was not concerned in the examine. “Everybody, like myself, assumed that [psychedelics] act on receptors that are on the cell surface area.”
Subscribe to Science Information
Get excellent science journalism, from the most trusted supply, sent to your doorstep.
That is wherever most receptors that functionality like 5-HT2A are located, suggests biochemist Javier González-Maeso of the Virginia Commonwealth College in Richmond, who was also not concerned in the perform.
For the reason that serotonin cannot arrive at 5-HT2A receptors inside of usual cortical neurons, Olson proposes that the receptors might reply to a distinctive chemical manufactured by the entire body. “If it’s there, it ought to have some sort of part,” he suggests. DMT, for example, is a by natural means happening psychedelic created by crops and animals, which include human beings, and can arrive at a cell’s interior.
Kwan disagrees. “It’s interesting that psychedelics can act on them, but I don’t know if the brain essentially demands to use them when performing its typical function.” As an alternative, he suggests that the interior receptors may be a reserve pool, prepared to exchange those people that get degraded on the mobile surface.
Possibly way, comprehension the cellular mechanisms driving psychedelics’ potential therapeutic results could assistance experts acquire safer and more successful therapies for mental overall health problems.
“Ultimately, I hope this sales opportunities to much better medications,” Olson says.
Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.
Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren
PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off this Monday, Feb. 20 for Presidents Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday, Feb. 21. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder.
It’s not unheard of in modern American politics for an incumbent president to face a primary challenger. RONALD REAGAN ran against President GERALD FORD in 1976, TED KENNEDY took on President JIMMY CARTER in 1980 and PAT BUCHANAN ran against President GEORGE H.W. BUSH in the 1992 primary.
As President JOE BIDEN gets ready for an expected reelection campaign, no competitive Democrat seems likely to challenge him. But that doesn’t mean that a longshot candidate won’t jump into the race. In fact, we may get one soon.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, the self-help author who went viral during the 2020 Democratic primary for her debate moments before dropping out ahead of the Iowa caucuses, appears on the verge of announcing she’s running again. Williamson spoke with West Wing Playbook this week about her decision and why she doesn’t think that Biden is the right person to lead the party. Here’s a condensed, edited version of our conversation.
First, have you decided whether to run for president in 2024?
I’ll be making a statement this weekend.
If you were to run, would it be as a Democrat, or an independent?
Absolutely a Democrat.
What’s factoring into your decision?
Apparently Biden’s going to run on a message that the economy is getting stronger. I think that speaks to the disconnect between the analysis of party elites versus the struggle of everyday Americans. We’re being asked to limit our political imaginations — to just accept the low unemployment and low inflation rate, that that is sort of the best that we can get.
But that is a hollow victory. The majority of Americans are still struggling to survive.
Is there anything that you think Biden has done a good job on?
If Build Back Better had passed, that would have been quite extraordinary. But there’s a lot of sleight of hand here.
For instance, there is more money in the Inflation Reduction Act given to green energy investment, all of which is good. But on the other hand, once again, there are more drilling permits than even were given under the Trump administration.
What are your thoughts on the changes to the Democratic primary calendar?
How can the Democratic Party present itself as a champion of democracy and do something as undemocratic as overtly engineering the primary schedule to make sure that their chosen candidate would win it?
That is spitting in the face of democracy.
Ok, so if you run with this primary calendar, what would be your strategy?
My strategy would be to tell the truth as I understand it. Did Donald Trump in 2016 have a strategy? I don’t think he had a strategy. He hit a nerve.
Your critics say you have no conceivable path forward and that running again is a vanity project.
Abolitionists would not have thought that abolishing slavery was possible. The suffragists would have had days when they didn’t think women’s suffrage was possible. Civil rights workers would have thought that desegregation wasn’t possible.
Biden has been discussing his decision about whether to seek reelection with his family members. What does that process look like for you?
In discussing it with my daughter recently, she said, “I do wish you had a less stressful dream.”
You moved to Washington, D.C. a few years ago. How has living here influenced you?
The problem is that those in power do not have the solutions and those with solutions do not have the power.
It’s almost heartbreaking to see all the people in this town, who work for NGOs who work for humanitarian organizations, who are talking about green energy, regenerative agriculture, climate change, carbon sequestration, peace building — the most they can get is a returned phone call. That is not the way to run a government.
What did the media get wrong about you in the last campaign cycle?
Where should I begin?
I’m certainly not anti-science. I’m not anti-vax. I’m not the crystal lady. I didn’t tell people they got sick because they didn’t pray enough. Basically, I’m not stupid.
Can you say any more about your weekend plans?
I will be in New Hampshire.
MESSAGE US — Are you WORKING ON WILLIAMSON’S CAMPAIGN? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at [email protected]
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
This one is from Allie. Who was the only president to get married in the White House?
(Answer at the bottom.)
TGIF! It’s cartoon feature time. This one is by MIKE LUCKOVICH. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country. View the cartoon carousel here.
A NOD TO MENTAL HEALTH: Biden tweeted his support Friday for Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.), who checked himself in for treatment for clinical depression this week. “Millions of people struggle with depression every day, often in private,” Biden wrote. “Getting the care you need is brave and important. We’re grateful to you for leading by example.”
Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE also opened her portion of Friday’s briefing by recognizing Fetterman for doing “the brave thing” and highlighted the administration’s “unprecedented investments” in expanding access to mental health.
HARRIS IN DEUTSCHLAND: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS offered a preview of her remarks at the Munich Security Conference in an interview with NBC’s ANDREA MITCHELL. In the interview, she vowed that the U.S. will not waver in its support for Ukraine. “I know the American people feel a sense of moral outrage and a sense of responsibility for our nation to stand with the Ukrainian people,” she said.
Harris also took issue with two possible GOP challengers to a potential Biden-Harris ticket in 2024. She called Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS’ effort to restrict the teaching of Black history “wrong-headed” and dismissed former South Carolina Gov. NIKKI HALEY’s suggestion that Biden, at 80, is too old to seek another term.
The sit-down with Mitchell is the first television interview Harris has done while overseas since speaking with NBC’s LESTER HOLT on her June 2021 trip to Guatemala, when she struggled to articulate the administration’s border security strategy.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?: The administration is finally responding more forcefully to a coordinated campaign by the nation’s biggest HMOs to fight proposed changes to Medicare Advantage. As we wrote last week, several Republicans have seized on the group’s claim that the changes proposed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services amount to a cut.
On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary XAVIER BECERRA hit back in a lengthy Twitter thread, calling claims of cuts to Medicare Advantage “categorically false,” and blasting the “deep-pocketed insurance companies and industry front groups” for suggesting as much. HHS also put out a fact sheet “correcting the record.” But the slow-footed response has frustrated some Biden aides, according to two sources familiar with the matter, given that the industry’s campaign has complicated Biden’s broadsides over GOP calls for cutting Medicare.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This report by the Washington Post’s HANNAH NATANSON and LORI ROZSA on concerns about DeSantis’ threat to eliminate Advanced Placement courses from Florida high schools. Such a move, parents worry, could put students at a competitive disadvantage given that AP courses and test results often boost college applicants and, in some cases, reduce tuition costs. The president himself tweeted out the piece Friday, elevating the issue – and a potential 2024 challenger. “I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible,” Biden wrote. “I guess, for some, that isn’t the consensus view.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by AP’s WILL WEISSERT about how Biden’s 2024 campaign strategy may have to be different if he’s in it to win it: “Though the GOP primary race is only just beginning, a general election pitting Biden against any other Republican could look very different from one against Trump, with Democrats perhaps seeing enthusiasm to stop Trump at all cost evaporate.”
HOT TAKE: Our MICHAEL SCHAFFER is out with a column for POLITICO Magazine … ahead of President’s Day…about how Americans are tired of presidents. Schaffer writes that “it appears that having a country where any chief executive is lucky to crack 50 percent approval ratings is having an impact on the institution itself. The long weekend formerly known as George Washington’s Birthday may now be known as Presidents Day, but the country is in no mood to celebrate.”
A TECHY PROMOTION ON THE TRADE BEAT: STEPHANIE NGUYEN, who has served as the Federal Trade Commission’s chief technology officer since 2021, is leading a new office within the agency — FTC’s Office of Technology, Global Competition Review’s BEN REMALY reports.
ANOTHER ONE GONE: Deputy political director CARLA FRANK, a veteran of Biden’s 2020 campaign who often travels with the president, is leaving the administration. Her final day was Friday. Our DANIEL LIPPMAN has more details.
WHOOPSIE: The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade said that one of the balloons shot down over the Yukon last weekend “could have been our balloon,” our MATT BERG reports. News surfaced Thursday that a balloon from the group was missing, though the Biden administration has not yet confirmed one of the balloons shot down belonged to them. “We haven’t recovered it so it’s very difficult until you can get your hands on something to be able to tell,” National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said Friday.
SEND IN THE JETS: A group of bipartisan lawmakers are calling on the president to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine, arguing that the jets “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year,” our CONNOR O’BRIEN reports. “The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations,” the lawmakers wrote.
Next, NAS, because he’s “one of the greatest,” he said. “Of course JAY-Z. I think in terms of lyrics and trying to deliver a message and awaken that consciousness.” Two others he’d want up there — KENDRICK LAMAR and BLACK THOUGHT from the hip-hop group The Roots.
“It’s hard when you try to create a Mount Rushmore … because when I wake up many days I’m looking for many things from music and there are so many different artists that can feed that,” he said.
A few issues here. 1. Mount Rushmore only has four faces on it. 2. No Biggie?
President GROVER CLEVELAND married FRANCES FOLSOM in the Blue Room of the White House on June 2, 1886, and has since been the only president to do so.
Cleveland, being the sitting president at the time, worked ahead of the ceremony, and it was a small one — with only 28 attendees, which included “relatives, close friends and members of the Cabinet with their wives,” according to History.com.
A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.
This post very first appeared in the Morning Transient. Get the Early morning Quick despatched right to your inbox each and every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe
Friday, February 17, 2023
Present day publication is by Alexandra Semenova, marketplaces reporter at Yahoo Finance. Abide by Alexandra on Twitter @alexandraandnyc. Read through this and extra industry news on the go with the Yahoo Finance App.
And suddenly, sturdy progress and persistent inflation have buyers thinking about a new training course for the financial system in the coming 12 months — a “no landing” state of affairs.
As the Federal Reserve aggressively raised curiosity costs in 2022, traders debated whether these moves would result in a “really hard” or “smooth” landing.
Basically, whether fast mounting charges would swiftly choke off economic expansion and inflation, or progressively sluggish advancement and price tag raises. In other text, would the Fed induce a recession, or just an economic slowdown?
The freshly-coined “no landing” outcome in its place considers a circumstance in which inflation doesn’t basically amazing while financial advancement carries on, even as curiosity charges remain elevated amid the Federal Reserve’s attempts to tamp price ranges down.
“In other text, the current market is stating that inflation will be noticeably better in a year’s time than the Fed’s 2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} inflation concentrate on,” Sløk mentioned in a modern be aware. “Put in another way, alternatively of anticipating a recession and reduce inflation, short-time period inflation anticipations are mounting and becoming unanchored.”
Sløk highlighted the recent pick-up in a person-year inflation breakevens, which are approaching 3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} just after the aforementioned operate of sturdy economic knowledge in January, suggesting traders are coming around to the notion of inflation remaining larger for more time.
1-yr breakeven inflation anticipations are growing and approaching 3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, driven larger by the sturdy January employment report and yesterday’s CPI report. (Source: Torsten Slok, Apollo)
But in accordance to at least one particular economist, this narrative buyers show up to be betting on is “nonsensical.”
“Because we are in this extremely risky natural environment, and for the reason that there is so considerably uncertainty, we have now observed a quantity of unique methods to interpret or get in touch with what we’re observing in the financial state,” EY Parthenon main economist Gregory Daco said in an job interview.
A landing — even so it may possibly ultimately glimpse — is heading to occur inevitably, in Daco’s check out.
The overall economy operates in a cyclical pattern, escalating right up until it reaches its peak and then contracting prior to hitting a trough and rebounding yet again into an growth phase.
“No landing does not make any feeling, simply because it fundamentally signifies the financial state proceeds to grow, and it is element of an ongoing enterprise cycle and it really is not an occasion — it really is just ongoing advancement,” he extra. “Does not that entail that the Fed will have to increase charges more, and does not that raise the danger of a tricky landing?”
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at The Financial Club of Washington, D.C., U.S, February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Sløk also indicated the no landing state of affairs would be probably to convey back the volatile market place action we observed in 2022 mainly because it reintroduces uncertainty about inflation and the Federal Reserve.
But the Federal Reserve hasn’t specifically specified reason for uncertainty: officers have continuously asserted for months that charges are likely to rise earlier mentioned 5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.
Federal Reserve Powell has reported as significantly himself: “There has been an expectation that [inflation] will go absent swiftly and painlessly I really do not think it is confirmed that’s the foundation situation,” he cautioned previous Monday at the Economic Club of D.C. “It will consider some time.”
And Sløk’s very own expectations for how the Federal Reserve will take care of this scenario align far more with Daco’s wondering than existing market pricing.
“The Fed will have to be additional hawkish to be certain that inflation expectations do not drift too much away from the FOMC’s 2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} inflation goal,” Slok claimed in a take note.
Which implies officers might in fact want to elevate charges larger, growing the danger of a “really hard landing” in the conclude.
What to Enjoy Nowadays
Financial system
8:30 a.m. ET: Import Value Index, month-about-thirty day period, January (-.1{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} predicted, .4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} during prior thirty day period)
8:30 a.m. ET: Import Value Index excluding petroleum, month-above-month, January (-.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} anticipated, .8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} during prior thirty day period)
8:30 a.m. ET: Import Rate Index, year-over-calendar year, January (1.4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} predicted, 3.5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in the course of prior month)
8:30 a.m. ET: Export Selling price Index, month-over-thirty day period, January (-.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} expected, -2.6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} all through prior month)
8:30 a.m. ET: Export Price Index, yr-in excess of-calendar year, January (2.8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} envisioned, 5.{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} during prior thirty day period)
10:00 a.m. ET: Leading Index, January (-.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} predicted, -.8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} through prior month)
Earnings
AMC Networks (AMCX), AutoNation (AN), Barnes Group (B), Deere (DE)
—
Click below for the newest inventory marketplace information and in-depth evaluation, which includes events that transfer shares
Browse the most current financial and organization news from Yahoo Finance
Down load the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Federal regulators are reviewing whether or not the robotaxi designed by Zoox meets prerequisites to vacation on public roads following the self-driving firm’s use of the auto to transport personnel previous week.
As opposed to a conventional car or truck and the cars most other robotaxi builders are using, the Zoox car lacks the steering wheel, brake pedal and other controls human motorists need to have.
Amazon-owned Zoox began using the robotaxi on Saturday to transport staff members amongst two firm places of work in Foster Town, Calif., right after acquiring a allow from the state’s Section of Motor Cars. To acquire the allow, Zoox self-certified that the electric powered car met existing Federal Motor Vehicle Security Criteria, CEO Aicha Evans reported.
Brands can self-certify compliance. In some instances, NHTSA may well scrutinize self-certifications to assure they conform with the requirements.
Which is what’s happening with Zoox.
“The company is assessing the basis for these self-certification promises and, as section of this effort and hard work, continues to overview facts supplied by Zoox in response to thoughts formerly posed by the agency,” a NHTSA spokesperson advised Automotive Information.
The regulatory agency does not preapprove or prohibit the introduction of new motor vehicles or vehicle technological innovation, so extensive as they conform with the motor car or truck security benchmarks. Autonomous automobiles that do not comply with the standards can nevertheless be deployed, so prolonged as companies initially obtain a NHTSA exemption.
Zoox did not implement for an exemption, nor did the enterprise pursue other lesser-recognized regulatory avenues, this sort of as exporting and importing motor vehicles. However, Evans mentioned there have been “no limits” on the firm’s deployment, which to date requires a single robotaxi touring a 1-mile route amongst the Zoox properties. Only employees are passengers.
Evans declined to elaborate on how Zoox interpreted the federal specifications and its compliance. But lots of autonomous automobile market specialists are pondering.
“There is some potential danger in this,” explained Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at consulting business Guidehouse Insights. “It is however an open up issue on whether or not what Zoox is executing is legit. Their authorized team appears to consider it is.”
Zoox’s deployment comes as the sector has developed disappointed with the speed at which federal legal guidelines and regulations have dealt with vehicle technologies advancements, 3 persons acquainted with discussions between AV corporations and NHTSA said. As providers take into consideration deployments, they are seeking approaches for navigating the motor car or truck basic safety standards.
A college landscape without the Pac-12 has become a storyline worth considering, though a break-up of the 107-year-old league isn’t particularly likely.
Industry sources still project a media rights deal split between ESPN and Amazon for the embattled conference. However, dissolution of the Pac-12 is being talked about openly in those same industry circles as a potential consequence if the league does not wrap up its new deal soon.
The fact that it could happen in these tenuous times is enough to project what the process might look like.
Multiple sources tell CBS Sports the league is struggling to match its desired value for its 10-team league (south of $400 million annually, $40 million per school) following the departures of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.
The most compelling reason: As it stands, the Pac-12 inventory of games is not something broadcast, linear cable or streaming must have at this point.
Not without USC and UCLA. Not with the league is in its eighth month since losing its two flagships. And not with 3.5 months having passed after the Pac-12 was leapfrogged by the Big 12.
The Big Ten is now coast-to-coast, spread across the three major broadcast networks (CBS, Fox, NBC). ESPN has gone all in on the SEC with an exclusive deal including the lucrative 3:30 p.m. ET window on Saturdays as well as the primetime slot with some of the highest-rated inventory in the sport. The ACC is locked in through 2036 at a stable number that is expected to grow as the ACC Network continues to throw off revenue. The Big 12 has staked its claim with Fox and ESPN, and it is looking to get bigger with expansion.
There is a finite amount any potential rightsholder is willing to pay for a damaged conference that is the last among the Power Five to complete a new media rights deal. Perhaps that was the implicit intent of the conference’s recent statement from its presidents — to calm fears.
Now consider what has impacted the Pac-12 and some of its potential bidders just since the beginning of the year:
Disney (parent company of ESPN) announced it is laying off 7,000 employees in a restructuring.
Amazon recently laid off 6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of its work force (18,000 globally).
Alphabet (parent company of Google) cut 12,000 jobs.
The Pac-12 may have simply waited to too long to do a deal that makes financial sense to some of its members. CBS Sports previously reported the Pac-12 may have to commit to expansion in order to maximize the value of a deal.
The bulk of the other Power Five’s games are on what are still-reliable linear platforms (broadcast, cable). Linear continues to outperform streaming by a large margin. Consider, during the 2022 season, the SEC and Big Ten had a combined 50 conference games that finished in the top seven of the weekly TV ratings.
The Pac-12 had one such game that didn’t include USC or UCLA, according to SportsMediaWatch.com
When the Big 12 similarly lost its two flagships programs, the league acted decisively to expand under then-commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Under new commissioner Brett Yormark, the Big 12 jumped ahead of the Pac-12 with that new media rights deal.
The Pac-12 has reached a point where the best broadcast windows on the best networks are filled with premium content from other conferences while streaming remains an unproven home. Did the league simply overvalue itself?
Taking all that into account, here is a step-by-step look at what would happen if the Pac-12 disbanded.
Why would the Pac-12 break up?
Basically, the current members would get nervous enough over a lack of value coming back to them in a media rights deal in conjunction with dissipating exposure and perceived prominence for their universities and athletic programs.
How will Pac-12 games be seen by a broad audience if they are not on TV or the best windows, which are filling up fast. If significantly more than half of future Pac-12 games project to be on a streaming serve, as CBS Sports previously reported, that’s a bad sign. Again, linear is still the preferred delivery system for live sports.
On a streaming carrier, the Pac-12 would lose significant visibility That translates — for starters — to declined recruiting and a struggle to hire top coaches if their games will not be widely available.
If individual or collective Pac-12 schools sense they can make more money and receive better exposure in another Power Five conference, they have no choice but to look out for the long-term financial security of their universities and athletic departments. Football (and basketball) media rights basically fund a program’s remaining sports.
Where would Pac-12 teams go?
If the Pac-12 ultimately breaks up, most — but not all — of its membership would find waiting Power Five homes. It would kick off another round of expansion and may result in further changes coming down the road.
Four Corners schools
Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah have been Big 12 targets, in some form, since USC and UCLA announced plans last summer to leave fo the Big Ten.
That interest has picked up considerably with the Pac-12 appearing even more vulnerable. Yormark wants to have membership in the Pacific Time Zone. That would make the Big 12 the only conference to have members across all four time zones.
Adding the Four Corners schools would also make the Big 12 the third conference with 16 members joining the SEC and Big Ten.
Arizona would enhance the Big 12’s basketball reputation. (Gonzaga is in consideration as a basketball-only member.)
Arizona State is one of the biggest sleeping giants in the country playing in the nation’s 11th biggest market (just outside Phoenix).
Colorado is a former Big 12 member, achieving its greatest success in the league in the old Big Eight. Deion Sanders at CU is a walking, talking marketing executive. Whatever he accomplishes, it can’t hurt viewership.
Utah (along with Oregon) is arguably the Pac-12’s strongest remaining football program. It would also give BYU a travel partner.
In essence, adding those four schools would create more Big 12 content in more time slots. Such an expansion might reflect what the Pac-12 is worth right now. If the Big 12 expands, its contract states new team(s) would get 63{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of pro rata revenue from ESPN (approximately $20 million annually). If that’s what compels those schools to move, what does it say about the current worth of the Pac-12?
Oregon and Washington
Assuming the Four Corners bolt first, that creates a decision for what would become the two biggest available brands in the country. Keyword “available” because, with the league crumbling around it, Oregon and Washington would have options. And their best option would likely be the Big Ten.
The schools align academically with the Big Ten. They would join USC and UCLA, mitigating travel issues in the Big Ten for all four schools with more games closer to home.
Even if the Pac-12 stays together, how long until Oregon and Washington have wandering eyes? Nike founder and Oregon benefactor Phil Knight has been looking out for the Ducks since early in the process. CBS Sports confirmed Washington’s interest in the Big Ten last fall, which was termed significant at the time, if the Pac-12 didn’t work out.
It is known outgoing Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren wanted further conference expansion seeking to add those two schools as well as Stanford and California. There was much pushback from Big Ten presidents and athletic directors, but with the Pac-12 potentially decided its own fate, the Big Ten wouldn’t be perceived as breaking up the league this time around, avoiding a possible costly legal challenge. (This time, however, the Big Ten would likely want no part of Stanford and Cal.)
An 18-team league would make the Big Ten the biggest in the history of major-college football. It would create significant scheduling issues and result in balking from existing rightsholders, who will be asked to pay more. Perhaps a streaming service would get involved to defer costs.
Best guess: Oregon and Washington would take less than a full Big Ten share (estimated $75million per school starting in 2024) at least initially to be part of the richest conference in the land.
The last four
Out of that upheaval emerges a conference of leftovers. Think of a Pac-12 — or whatever it is called by then — attempting to forge ahead with its four remaining schools (Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington State) while filling the rest of the conference with Mountain West programs. (It could also go the other direction.)
San Diego State and SMU are already projected as expansion candidates if the Pac-12 survives, so pencil them in to make it six teams in the hybrid league. A corner bar discussion might reveal a new Pac-12 that looks like this:
Cal
Boise State
Fresno State
Oregon State
San Diego State
SMU
Stanford
Washington State
That lineup would reduce the Power Five to the Power Four, creating implications beyond the Pac-12 itself.
Pac-12’s best chance
The way out of this muck is a 12-team league that includes San Diego State and SMU appearing to present more value to potential rightsholders.
The Pac-12 has been positioning itself for such an expansion while struggling to meet its goals. SDSU gives the Pac-12 a presence once again in Southern California. SMU gives the league some things it never possessed: games in the noon ET window and a recruiting foothold in Texas. We’ve detailed San Diego State’s advantages.
Adding the two teams would give rightsholders 90 Pac-12 games on which to bid. But again, that’s assuming there’s enough bidders with enough money left for the remains of the Conference of Champions.
