PHOENIX -- Set aside for a moment that the new Pac-12 television deal will quadruple revenue for each conference team. That's important, but football was hardly skimping on expenditures before.

What might be even more important for football coaches is this: Every game is on television, whether that's ABC or ESPN or Fox or the Pac-12 network.

Why does that make coaches grin? It means a weapon used against the conference in recruiting is gone, particularly recruiting outside the West Coast: "Your parents won't get to watch you play on TV."

"We're still unlocking doors about the possibilities of what we can do, but from a recruiting standpoint, telling these recruits we are going to be able to televise every single game that they are going to play in their whole career is significant," Stanford coach David Shaw said. "For us, as a national recruiter, recruits won't have to find us on different packages. They'll find us on network TV."

That means, for example, that a hotshot prospect in Pascagoula, Miss., who never thought he'd leave SEC territory, can be told that his momma will be able to see him play every game.

Pac-12 coaches aren't happy about everything. They aren't happy learning they will be making a second trip across the country in July for another East Coast media day. But the new, mega-media deal softens that burden just a bit.

Shaw called the new contract "phenomenal." UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel termed it "a monumental day." Oregon State's Mike Riley called the numbers -- an average of $250 million a season over 12 years -- "amazing" and "phenomenal."

"It's amazing," Riley said. "What Larry Scott and his team have done over a short period of time is absolutely phenomenal."

Riley was an expansion skeptic. He liked the nine-game round-robin schedule that determined a true conference champion with the regular season. He liked the annual trips to Los Angeles, which helped Southern California recruiting. He was a traditionalist who saw issues that might affect his program negatively.

"I had to finally say get over it," he said.

And he admitted Wednesday that he's starting to warm to the idea of change. At least the announced changes so far.

"This is frankly the reason [for expansion] what just happened," he said.