The long-delayed Pac-12 media rights deal will not be announced at football’s media day on Friday, a conference source told The Athletic, in part due to recent developments in the negotiations.
“We saw people coming to the table who weren’t at the table six months ago,” the person said. “The patience shown by the presidents and chancellors is paying off because waiting will lead to better deals than the league would have gotten three, six, nine months ago.”
The person said there was no specific timeline for an announcement beyond the “near future.”
It has now been nearly a full year since Commissioner George Kliavkoff announced at the 2022 Pac-12 Football Media Day that the league had entered talks on a new media rights deal to begin with the 2024 football season, when the league’s current contracts will begin with ESPN, Fox and the Pac-12 Networks are phased out. He said at the time that the process “will likely take months to complete.”
Over the past five months, several league presidents and ADs have made public comments hinting at an upcoming timeline for a new deal, but none of which materialized. As the talks dragged on, speculation grew that schools like Colorado and Arizona, known as Big 12 expansion destinations, might be leaving.
But both Arizona President Robert Robbins and Colorado Chancellor Phil DiStefano have indicated their schools won’t make any decisions until they know the details of the Pac-12’s next deal. The Big 12’s new deals with ESPN and Fox, beginning in 2025, are reportedly worth $31.7 million annually per school.
“We’re not even going to think about going anywhere, any of us, until we see what kind of offer we’re going to get, and that’s still being worked out,” DiStefano told USA Today in late April.
The Big 12 have been exploring expansion since the hiring of Commissioner Brett Yormark last summer, with a focus on adding Colorado and potentially more Pac-12 members. The Athletic previously reported that no Pac-12 school was more receptive to offers from the Big 12 than Colorado.
Yormark said at the Big 12 Media Days last week that his conference has an expansion plan that he plans to implement “sooner than later” if the opportunity arises. UConn is also on Yormark’s radar, but moving in that direction will need to build consensus among the ADs and Big 12 presidents that the Huskies are a valuable addition to the league. Yormark has also said he’s “perfectly fine” with staying with 12 members, which could be the case for now if Colorado actually stays with the Pac-12.
Kliavkoff, who has not commented publicly on the negotiations since last December, will be taking questions from the media on Friday in Las Vegas, where the topic will include on-field appearances by stars including Heisman winner Caleb Williams of USC and Washington quarterback Michael threatens to overshadow Penix Jr. and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix.
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