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Why leaving the Pac-12 led to a deficit in Utah Athletics’ latest financial report

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Why leaving the Pac-12 led to a deficit in Utah Athletics’ latest financial report


This article was first published in the Ute Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night.

Utah Athletics had a budget deficit of $17 million, according to the school’s latest financial report.

For financial year 24, which ranges from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, the Utah athletics department reported a $17,041,625 budget shortfall, the first deficit in quite a while.

The university posted record revenue of $115.7 million in FY22 and $126.3 million in FY23, but for FY24, Utah’s revenue shrank to $109.8 million.

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In an addendum to the athletic department’s financial report, Utah wrote, “The University of Utah’s FY24 net margin of ($17M), as reported in the annual NCAA Revenues & Expenses Report, was driven primarily by external factors.”

Those external factors were the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference in the summer of 2023.

The collapse of the historic conference started with USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten in 2022. Then, the Big 12 beat the Pac-12 to the media rights punch, securing a nearly $2.3 billion media deal with ESPN and Fox that reportedly will pay out $31.6 million per year to each of its schools when it takes effect in 2025.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkof had reportedly turned down a deal from ESPN that would have paid its schools $30 million each, per John Canzano, and after the Big 12’s deal with ESPN and Fox, TV networks were full with inventory from the Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big Ten, and weren’t going to pony up more for the depleted Pac-12 with no Los Angeles TV market.

The best deal the Pac-12 got was a $25 million per school offer from Apple — streaming only — per Canzano. Colorado left for the Big 12, followed by Washington and Oregon bolting to the Big Ten. Utah wasn’t far behind, joining the Big 12.

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Oregon State and Washington State, the only two members left in the Pac-12, reached a settlement deal with the departing schools — approximately $5 million per school withheld from revenue distribution and another $1.5 million payment to the conference, per Sportico.

Utah reported a net $6,870,866 loss from conference distributions, which exclude media rights and football bowl revenue. In all, the university made $29,190,481 from the Pac-12 in FY25, which includes conference bowl game payouts and media rights.

Other expenditures that contributed to the deficit were legal fees resulting from the exit from the Pac-12 and overpayment of prior year television distributions, according to Utah (This year, the Pac-12 had to pay a combined $72 million to offset 10 years of Comcast overpayment to the league for the Pac-12 Networks, which meant a smaller distribution for schools.).

All told, Utah says that approximately 70% of the $17 million deficit (which was covered by “carry-forward” athletics reserves from prior years) can be “traced to the breakup of the Pac-12 Conference.” “Travel costs and a significant year-over-year increase in the University’s published cost of attendance were other major contributing and uncontrollable factors,” Utah wrote.

Utah says that “Key revenue performance indicators such as ticket sales, number of donors, and total donations (not all reflected in this report) improved year-over-year.”

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While the Utes have been a full-revenue member from the beginning in the Big 12, that won’t be reflected in a public financial report until the FY25 report comes out.

In case you missed it

Ezra Ausar led the way for the Runnin’ Utes as they defeated rival BYU at the Hunstman Center in overtime. Ausar had a career-high 26-points in the victory. On Wednesday, the Utes were crushed by 34 points on the road at Houston.

From the archives

Extra points

  • 3 heroes who lifted Utah past BYU in a rivalry thriller (Deseret News)
  • 8 players with Utah ties are 1 win away from the Super Bowl (Deseret News)
  • A favorable schedule lies ahead. Will Utah women’s basketball recapture its winning ways this week? (Deseret News)



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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

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22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide


LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

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The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.



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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

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Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children


A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

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“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

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“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

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He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

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“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

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‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing


SALT LAKE CITY — Francisco Daniel Aguilar says he’s sorry for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jacqueline “Jacky” Nunez-Millan, a Piute High School sophomore, in 2023.

But just as he did when he was sentenced, he didn’t have much of an explanation on Tuesday as to why he shot her not once, but twice.

“It just kinda happened. I was mad. And I stepped out (of my truck) and started shooting,” he said. “When I saw her fall, I just kind of panicked, I just went and shot her again.”

But Jacky’s friends and family members say even before she was killed, Aguilar already had a history of violence, and they now want justice to be served.

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“You don’t accidentally take a gun, you don’t accidentally grab a knife … you don’t accidentally shoot someone, those are all choices,” a tearful Rosa Nunez, Jacky’s sister, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Keep him where he needs to be.

“Don’t release him ever. Please.”

On Jan. 7, 2023, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, Jacky, shot her twice and left her body near a dirt road outside of Circleville, Piute County. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated murder and sentenced to a term of 25 years to up to life in prison.

Because of Aguilar’s age at the time of the offense, board member Greg Johnson explained Tuesday that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is required to hold a hearing much earlier than the 25-year mark, mainly to check on Aguilar and “see how things are going.” Aguilar, now 20, is currently being held in a juvenile secure care facility and will be transferred to the Utah State Prison when he turns 25 or earlier if he has discipline violations and is kicked out of the youth facility.

According to Aguilar’s sentencing guidelines, he will likely remain in custody until at least the year 2051.

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During Tuesday’s hearing, Aguilar told the board that he was feeling “stressed out” during his senior year of high school. He said he and Jacky would often have little arguments. But their bigger fight happened when he failed to get her a “promise ring” around Christmastime, he said.

On the night of the killing, the two were arguing about the promise ring and other items, Aguilar recalled. At one point, he grabbed a knife and then a gun because, he said, he wanted to “irritate” and “scare” Jacky. According to evidence presented in the preliminary hearing, Aguilar and his girlfriend had been “trying to make each other angry” when Aguilar took ammunition and a 9mm gun from his father’s room and then drove to the Black Hill area in his truck with Jacky.

Jacky’s friend, McKall Taylor, went looking for her that night and found her. But after Aguilar shot Jacky in the leg, he began shooting at Taylor, who had no choice but to run to her car to get away. Her car was hit multiple times by bullets. Aguilar then shot Jacky a second time as she lay on the ground and Taylor drove away.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s mother, Lori Taylor, read a statement to the board on her daughter’s behalf.

“My innocence and freedom was taken from me,” she said.

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McKall Taylor says the “horrifying events of that night will forever play in my head,” and the sounds of Jacky screaming and the gunshots as well as the sight of Jacky falling to the ground, will never go away.

“Francisco is a murderer who has zero remorse,” her letter states.

Likewise, Rosa Nunez told the board that for her and her family, “nothing in our world has felt safe since” that night as they all “continue to relive this horrific moment.”

After shooting Jacky and driving off, Aguilar says he called his father and “told him I was sorry for not being better, for not making good choices, I told him that I loved him. I was just planning on probably shooting myself, too.”

His father told him that although what he did wasn’t right, “he’d rather see me behind bars than in a casket,” and then told his son to “be a man about it. … This is where you have to change.”

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Aguilar was arrested after his tires were spiked by police.

“An apology won’t fix what I did. I’ll never be able to fix what I did. But I want to say I’m sorry,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t even know how to fix what I did. I’m hoping I’m on the right track now.”

Johnson noted that Aguilar has done well during his short time being incarcerated. But that doesn’t change the fact “the crime was horrific,” he said.

The full five-member board will now take a vote. The board could decide to schedule another parole hearing for sometime in the future or could order that Aguilar serve his entire life sentence. But even if that were to happen, Johnson says Aguilar could petition every so often for a redetermination hearing.

The board’s decision is expected in several weeks.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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