Pac 12 Conference Disintigrates As Schools Seek Stable Media Deals

* I put this in current events for its reach beyond sports. Move if desired*

For those who follow collegiate athletics, this was a crazy few days, and a long time coming. The comparison to Blockbuster video passing on Netflix has been made. In all cases, the Pac 12, 10, 9, 7, 6, 4, Pac 4 Conference is dead.

www.si.com...

The Pac 12's media deal procrastination, not expanding when they had the better media deal, or the lack of exposure for the network could be to blame. Really, it's the latent arrogance of Larry Scott, who may as well be the Kodak CEO scoffing at digital film.

UCLA and USC were ahead of the game. They saw the futility on the horizon and joined The Big 10 in 2022, to begin play in 2024.

The remaining 10 went into wait and see mode. And when the streaming-centric, tiered deal, based on Apple TV subscriptions was revealed, it was the final nail.

Big 12 has now returned from dead. Lost the Red River Rivalry, but poached the country of 8 teams in response.

Colorado said "F It!" and decided to return home to The Big 12 a few weeks ago..

Arizona, salivating at the prospect of being in the same conference as Kansas, applied Thursday.

Oregon and Washington defected to the Big 10 Friday morning.

And Arizona State and Utah followed Colorado and Arizona to the Big 12 in the evening.

Now Stanford, California, Oregon State, and Washington State are left to scrap an existence. See where they land. Given geographic location is irrelevant they could all join the ACC and rename it the Pacifantic Coast Conference

As of today, starting in 2024. (Media Partner)

The Big 10 has 18 teams. (CBS, NBC, FOX)
The SEC has 16 teams (Disney = ESPN/ABC)
The Big 12 has 16 teams (ESPN , FOX)
The ACC has 15 teams (ESPN)

The Pac 12 has 4 teams left and no non-streaming based media deal offered. The schools left may need to take a massive pay cut to survive. A 15 million a year pay cut if they were to join The Mountain West, for example. Don't blame the other 8 schools though. It's survival of the fittest unofficial brand.

That's the way of the world.

The conglomerate conference age begins.

The Big 12 bound schools get a 10 million dollar media deal pay raise. Each school to recieve around 31 million.

UCLA and USC get full Big 10 revenue sharing at 65-75 million each.

Oregon and Washington get a reduced Big 10 revenue of around 30 million.

They are "Student-athletes" as much as they are meal tickets in the high profit sports, like Football and Basketball.

But the superconferences will be entertaining.

I'm from Merryland and I never got over them leaving the ACC for the Big1&.
I think most of the fans hate this but its all bout the $ these day.

years of tradition and memories down the drain. sad.

I know its a stupid thing to worry about when people are struggling to produce three hots and a cot for themselves, but its a thing.

thanks for posting.

I always thought the Pac12 was one of the major major players.
I'm guessing the last four will meld with the Mountain West.

a reply to: ElGoobero

I'm an Arizona fan, and were less split on this.

Yeah, tradition, The tears of Bill Walton crying over the conference of champions, but we really don't care about the football team to the same degree as basketball, and all you have to say is "yearly basketball games with Kansas and Baylor" and most people are sold.

Maryland seemed the opposite of that. Maryland left The basketball heavy ACC for a football-first conference. And a massive football endowed pay raise.

I never thought basketball was so second fiddle to Football revenue, but there you go.