Within 72 hours of presenting a streaming deal with Apple to its members, the Pac-12 finds itself on the brink of possible dissolution.
Pac-12 schools Oregon and Washington have officially joined the Big Ten, it was announced Friday, while Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are reportedly finalizing their departures for the Big 12. The flurry of moves began with an ill-fated meeting of Pac-12 schools Thursday to discuss the conference’s proposed media rights deal with Apple.
Combined with previously-announced departures of Colorado to the Big 12 and USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, the moves would leave the Pac-12 with just four members: Oregon State, Washington State, Cal and Stanford. There had been some speculation that the Big Ten would add Cal and Stanford as well, though that no longer seems likely.
Early Friday, reports indicated that the Pac-12 could see a reprieve and hold onto its nine remaining schools, but any such thought quickly went by the wayside.
Questions about the future of the Pac-12 have swirled since USC and UCLA announced their move to the Big Ten last year and accelerated when the Big 12 fast-tracked its media rights renewal — leaving the Pac-12 as the last of the “Power 5” without a renewal through the rest of this decade.
The final straw for the conference would seem to be the Apple TV media rights deal that was first presented to members on Tuesday. The deal would have reportedly provided schools $20-25 million per year, with the possibility of more if certain subscription incentives were met. By comparison, Big 12 schools will make more than $30 million per year and Big Ten schools north of $60 million. Oregon and Washington would be entitled only to a share of that Big Ten revenue, but even half would exceed the Apple deal.
The Pac-12 currently has a rights deal with ESPN and Fox Sports that expires at the end of this season. Neither company was a significant player in the current negotiations. If there was the expectation (or hope) that streaming platforms could sufficiently make up for a lack of interest from linear television — as was the case when NFL Thursday Night Football found no takers on traditional TV but ended up with an eight-figure annual deal with Amazon — the Pac-12 experience provides a dose of cold water.
The apparent demise of the Pac-12 would mark the biggest change to any major college sports conference since the split of the “old Big East” in 2013. It is unclear whether the 108-year old conference will continue to exist.
(News from Yahoo 8.4, ESPN 8.4, CBS 8.4, Brett McMurphy 8.4)
