Rob Mullens has “great confidence” the Oregon Ducks are going to “end in the right place.” Whether that place remains in the Pac-12 or elsewhere is the question that has been facing the University of Oregon, its administration and athletic director for nearly 11 months and looms as the conference continues to negotiate a new media deal.
That process began last July in the immediate aftermath of the UCLA and USC announcing they were leaving to join the Big Ten in August 2024. Since then, the Big 12 expanded and its commissioner, Brett Yormark, outmaneuvered Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to reach a new media deal that gave that conference stability and locked up multiple television windows on Fox and ESPN.