The Pac-12 first opened negotiations on its next media rights deal last July, shortly after USC and UCLA announced their departures for the Big Ten. Since then, the expected timeline for a completed deal has been pushed back more times than an overmatched defensive tackle.
On Thursday, a person with knowledge of the Pac-12 media rights discussions told The Athletic a deal for 2024-25 and beyond won’t likely be announced until “late spring, early summer.” Less than a month ago, Arizona president Robert Robbins told The Athletic he believed the conference would have a deal “within the next couple of weeks,” and that same week, Arizona State president Michael Crow told The State Press, “I think we’re close to a deal.”
The person with knowledge of the discussions now says those comments were “overly optimistic.”
Pac-12 TV update: The timeline for a deal is now "late spring, early summer" according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.
Several Pac-12 presidents had recently said a deal was imminent. The source said those comments were "overly optimistic."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 6, 2023
The delay may be in part because of the emergence of a new potential partner. Two sources indicated there have been recent discussions between the Pac-12 and The CW, a national over-the-air broadcast network better known for scripted shows like “Gossip Girl,” “Supernatural” and “Riverdale.” Since purchasing The CW Network last year, parent company Nexstar Media Group has expressed interest in procuring live sports rights, announcing in January a deal with LIV Golf.
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The conference, whose current deal expires in the summer of 2024, remains on pace for a customary media rights timeline. Last August, the Big Ten announced new agreements with Fox, NBC and CBS almost exactly 12 months before they were set to commence.
But there’s a greater sense of urgency because the Pac-12’s survival as a conference is contingent on commissioner George Kliavkoff delivering his members an attractive enough deal to keep them from defecting.
Is it time for Pac-12 schools and their fans to panic? Not necessarily. There remain multiple parties interested in televising Pac-12 football and basketball. The question is whether Kliavkoff can deliver as much or more revenue as the Big 12’s reported $31.7 million-per-school deal with ESPN and Fox while keeping the bulk of the league’s marquee games on a linear network.
Here’s where those discussions stand, based on conversations with seven industry sources.
• The protracted process indicates Kliavkoff is not overly concerned about any of the Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — defecting just yet. However, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has recently met with multiple presidents of Pac-12 schools looking to explore their options, a person briefed on the meetings said.
The Big 12’s efforts to achieve westward expansion have been persistent and well-documented, dating back to last July when Yormark was hired days before the Big Ten landed USC and UCLA. Is he willing to sit back for several more months and see how this process plays out? Or will he focus on convincing more impatient members to make a move?
• Despite significant cost-cutting measures underway at parent company Disney, ESPN remains interested in Pac-12 rights, but not likely at a price the conference is seeking. It’s unclear whether the network would land a similar inventory to what it has now or a more narrow package, perhaps primarily in the 10:30 p.m. ET window.
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• Even before USC and UCLA left, Klivakoff had said the next deal would include a heavy streaming component, in part because the 11-year-old Pac-12 Network has such limited distribution. Both Amazon and Apple have been widely reported as potential partners. The person with knowledge of the discussions said the streaming companies’ lack of experience negotiating a college sports rights deal has contributed to the slow pace of the negotiations.
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• Kliavkoff himself has remained mostly quiet about the negotiations and kept his circle tight. Even the schools’ athletic directors are being kept in the dark. But the presidents have been regularly briefed, and some of their mixed messaging over the past several months has contributed to a sense of disarray within the conference.
Washington State president Kirk Schulz told the Mercury News’ Jon Wilner in February: “My sense is we need to get it done in March — in mid-March, hopefully.” Oregon State’s Jayathi Murthy expressed much of the same in an interview with John Canzano. Then came Arizona State’s Crow and Arizona’s Robbins, both making a deal sound imminent by late March.
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But on March 20, Utah’s Taylor Randall said on The Bill Riley Show in Salt Lake City: “I think we’ve still got a ways to go.”
• The person familiar with the discussions indicated there’s a divide in the room between those, like Schulz, eager to get a deal done as soon as possible to quiet the “noise,” and others, like Randall, who are willing to be patient if it means getting a better deal. “There’s been a lot of comments from the media about how this is taking a long time,” said Randall, “but it’s really that we started a year earlier than expected.”
And then there’s Robbins, who, in the same March 15 interview in which he predicted an imminent deal that would be “better” than the Big 12’s, described himself as leading the charge to pump the brakes.
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“I said at one point, why don’t we just go out and say we’re going to take a 90-day moratorium on this topic?” he said. “We’re going to join Aaron Rodgers in his dark (room) and we’re just going to contemplate this. And then we’ll come out and make our decision.”
He may have gotten his wish. By March 30, Robbins had done a 180, telling CBS Sports: “I have heard nothing to suggest [a deal is] imminent.”
The presidents, who last met on March 23, are scheduled to hold their next meeting on April 10. At this rate, they may hold several more before there is a deal for them to approve.
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)