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The Pac-12 is deep in media rights negotiations for a new package that will begin in 2026, when the rebuilt league welcomes five new members.
Though the discussions are still ongoing, the conference is expecting a media rights package with multiple broadcast networks, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould confirmed in an interview on “Next Up with Adam Breneman.”
The league began media rights negotiations about three months ago after a major round of expansion this past fall. After the once-mighty conference was down to just Oregon State and Washington State in 2023, the two-member league made a blockbuster move in the fall of 2024, announcing it would add Boise State, Utah State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State beginning in 2026. The league has since also added Gonzaga, which does not sponsor football. The Pac-12 still needs one more full football-playing member to start by 2026—but for now, the league’s priority is agreeing to a media rights package. (For the 2024 football season, the league had a modest one-year deal with The CW and Fox to broadcast home football games for Oregon State and Washington State.)
As for what the league is looking for next? “We need these partnerships to be transformational at this point,” Gould said.
The league won’t garner the same value as it once did when the league’s media deal doled out around $30 million per school annually, but Gould said that “potential media rights partners really see the value in the legacy of the Pac-12 brand.” She also cited recent football viewership as evidence that the reimagined league will be successful: Through at least half of the regular-season, WSU and OSU games on The CW regularly outperformed ACC matchups on the same network (averaging more than 400,000 viewers), and the two league games on Fox Sports were on par with Big 12 football viewership.
Gould noted that the league is likely to need partners that can reach a “diverse” audience, both geographically and demographically. That’s part of the reason the league will need more than one media partner—she hinted at needing a strong streaming platform in addition to traditional linear channels. (The Pac-12 fell apart after former commissioner George Kliavkoff tried to get teams to sign onto an exclusive media deal with AppleTV+, which would have offered $20 million per school in its first year and was seen as too low at the time.)
The Pac-12 has enlisted Octagon to consult on the negotiations, which a source recently described to FOS as in “exploratory” phases. As of early February, Fox Sports, ESPN, and CBS were all still potentially open to the possibility of participating in a package as of the beginning of February, FOS previously reported. It was unclear what level of interest each network had, but none had closed the door completely.
In its next media deal, the league will need “somebody to really jump in with us,” Gould said, “and say, ‘We want to help elevate and reimagine the new Pac-12.’”
