Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff still hasn’t inked a new media rights deal — despite eight months of negotiating.
Part of the holdup: The conference will lose its two biggest brands, USC and UCLA, to the Big Ten.
One source told the Los Angeles Times that the Pac-12 could’ve earned about $200 million more a year than it can expect without them now.
The conference’s current package, which ends in 2024, allows it to send each school between $30 million and $35 million a year from media rights and other conference distributions, according to tax returns.
But the Pac-12 would be lucky to maintain that number in its next deal, despite having to split distributions between fewer members, one source told Front Office Sports.
The Race for Media Revenue
Meanwhile, all the other Power 5 conferences have secured their futures beyond the 2024 season.
The Big 12 jumped ahead of the Pac-12, securing a $2.28 billion deal with Fox and ESPN last fall — even though the Big 12’s deal isn’t up until a year after the Pac-12’s.
The Big Ten has a mid-$7 billion deal — the largest conference package in NCAA history — and the SEC isn’t far behind thanks to a package including a 10-year, $3 billion deal with Disney.
The ACC is locked into its deal until 2036 — and though it contributes to conference payouts that don’t reach $40 million each, its stability has never looked better.
