Kurt's Thoughts

How to make great French Press coffee:
(Stolen from AllRecipes & some other YouTube sources)

1. Grind beans as fresh as possible
2. Coarse grind about like coarse salt – NOT PRE-GROUND
3. Ratio: 60g to 1L of water/16g to 250ml (See below for table)
4. Heat water to a boil then remove from heat to settle from 212F to 195F
5. Pour some boiling water into decanter to pre heat for even brewing & consistency, swirl & dispose
6. Pour coffee directly into press decanter & then pour water over covering all grounds – do not stir with a spoon or agitate beyond the pour
7. Let sit for 4 minutes in open air: grounds will settle
8. Remove top layer / crust with a spoon being careful not to stir coffee
9. Cover press decanter but do not press down!  Instead for a smoother flavor, simply use top UNPRESSED as a filter and pour ALL coffee into cups or thermos. (Pressing will reagitate the coffee, produce residue in your cup & make it more bitter)
10. Stir cups/thermos & serve

General rules for coffee/water ratio:

• 1 cup water (8 fluid ounces) — 2 tablespoons coffee beans (14 grams)
• 2 cups water (16 fluid ounces) — ¼ cup coffee beans (28 grams)
• 4 cups of water (32 fluid ounces) — 1/2 cup coffee beans (56 grams)
• 8 cups of water (64 fluid ounces) — 1 cup coffee beans (112 grams)

I really had to double click on this because I was as astounded at the move as everyone else was.

But upon investigating the rationale behind UCLA/USC’s move to the Pac-12, the opportunity is an absolute no-brainer for both the Big 10 and the two Los Angeles universities.

CONFERENCE CONSOLIDATION
First of all, conference changes are happening everywhere. See: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/conference-realignment-tracker-ranking-top-moves-for-the-upcoming-2022-2023-college-basketball-season/

What you see is universities taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them & consolidating to put themselves into the best positions possible strategically & financially for their programs.

So why are conferences consolidating?

It’s simple: You can make more money together in volume, than you can negotiating separately.  If you have a lot of marquee names, you can negotiate for things like TV rights much more effectively than small market names.  And university athletic programs are being forced to find more ways to make money to be viable/effective in the future.

But why did UCLA & USC, who have such big brands go to the Big 10?

SEVERAL REASONS FOR UCLA TO MOVE TO THE BIG 10:
I’m sure there’s more than this but this is just what I’ve been able to research so far:

• NIL & ADVERTISING DEBT
  The Supreme Court NIL ruling put the power to make money into the hands of the athletes.  Conversely, the NIL ruling has taken a massive revenue generation stream away from the colleges. $100Ms of dollars, in some cases & that has to be replaced or the programs will go bankrupt.
  https://trace.tennessee.edu/jasm/vol13/iss2/8/

• PLAYOFFS
  The College Football Playoffs represent $600M for the 4 playoff teams today, with $2B on the horizon with the 12-team expansion coming. Schools MUST vie for a spot in the playoffs to be a relevant contender in football and that requires poll & playoff votes & exposure. UCLA needs to be on a national stage to get those poll & playoff votes & that requires playing teams that have a major athletic budget & marketing commitment to football regularly like Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Penn State, etc.
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/terencemoore/2021/07/06/the-ncaa-hadnt-a-choice-but-nil-rule-will-damage-college-football-and-basketball/?sh=6926d80d2c0d

• MARQUEE NAME REVENUE
  ESPN, Fox & service providers pay more for marquee match ups of big markets (Los Angeles, Michigan, Ohio) not small markets (Corvallis, Pullman, Arizona) Separating from lesser known Pac-12 conference members for marquee names in the Big 10 negotiates much bigger revenue for TV game rights. Bottom line: Playing conference games against Michigan, Ohio St, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Penn St, Nebraska, Iowa, Purdue, Illinois, etc. brings in far more revenue from national networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, FOX.
  https://archive.ph/VPS1O

• CONFERENCE NETWORK REVENUE
  
  The Pac-12 Network brings in drastically less than what the Big 10 Network brings in & redistributes to it’s members.  In 2017, the Pac-12 distributed just $2.5M per member for ALL GAMES vs the Big 10 which distributed $8M per member.
  https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/la-sp-pac-12-networks-20170726-story.html

• RECRUITING – EXPOSURE
  
  Recruits/Athletes go to colleges for exposure & the best exposure is being on TV every weekend on the most TVs. The Big 10 has 60M viewers.  The Pac-12 Network has 18M viewers.
  https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/02/13/think-the-pac-12-networks-are-struggling-with-audience-and-revenue-the-reality-might-be-worse-than-you-imagined/
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/04/19/how-changes-to-the-ncaas-nil-rules-will-impact-brand-marketing/?sh=1fb9bead7f89

• RECRUITING – NIL REVENUE
  
  NIL marketplaces/exchanges are far more profitable for athletes – even for Los Angeles – when the athlete’s visibility is broad. The more eyeballs, the more money. And recruits come to the universities where they can make the most money.
  https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2021/09/20/Upfront/Name-Image-Likeness.aspx
• THE BIG PINK ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: “UNDER ARMOUR”
  Signed in 2017, UCLA had a 15 year, $280M athletics sponsorship deal with Under Armour… who renegged on the contract in 2020 and was subsequently sued by UCLA.  While the matter was in litigation, no money is coming in from that sponsorship & UCLA is out $19M in revenue annually.  And even with UCLA signing a new $46M/6yr contract with Nike ($7.7M/year), that’s not enough to fill the revenue hole left by Under Armour.
  Reportedly, the move to the Big 10, with the new Big 10 TV contracts being negotiated, can net UCLA $100M in revenue EVERY YEAR.
  https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ucla-under-armour-drop-opposing-lawsuits-over-defunct-apparel-deal/ar-AA1052vW