Report: Pac-12 conference garnering new interest in search for TV deal
Jul 18, 2023, 2:55 PM
Pac-12 logo on the court after a college basketball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Washington Huskies on February 10, 2022, at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle, WA. (Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Pac-12 is seeing new powers enter the conversation when it comes to securing a new TV deal, per The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel.
Mercury News’ Jon Wilner also reported the added interest.
Additionally, there is no specific timetable for an announcement on a new deal outside of in the “near future,” per Mandel.
“We’ve seen folks come to the table that were not at the table six months ago,” a conference source said. “The patience that the presidents and chancellors are showing is paying off, because waiting is going to result in better deals than the league would have gotten three, six, nine months ago.”
The news of the added interest in the conference’s TV rights comes ahead of the Pac-12’s media day this Friday.
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff and the rest of the conference have been searching for a new TV rights deal since last July.
The inability to land a new deal — in addition to the departures of USC and UCLA — has led to speculation that more schools could be on the way out in the Pac-12.
A cautiously optimistic University of Arizona president Bobby Robbins said during a Future of College Athletics Summit in June his preference, and the consensus among his colleagues in the Pac-12, is to keep the current 10 schools together.
Whether the Pac-12 expands is dependent on if a new television deal will include an equal share for potential new members and not cut into what the existing members receive, Robbins added.
The Pac-12’s current deal expires following the 2023-24 school year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
