Tag: Big 12 Media Rights

REPORT: Dollar figure finally emerges on significant ESPN deal Pac-12 rejected

John Canzano reports the #Pac12 presidents rejected a 2022 ESPN deal for $30M per school, competitive with the #Big12.

Earlier this week, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reported that in 2022, Pac-12 presidents rejected what was termed a significant offer from ESPN for Pac-12 media rights.

Let’s remember that the Big 12 arrived at a deal — sans Texas and Oklahoma (who will leave next year) — for $31.7 million per school. That was a remarkably good price point considering the two huge brands in the conference would no longer be part of the media landscape in the Big 12.

Apparently, the Pac-12 had a competitive media rights price point in 2022, but according to John Canzano, the conference’s presidents turned down an ESPN deal. That deal would have paid out $30 million to each member school per year.

The Pac-12 should have rushed to ESPN’s doors to agree to a $30 million price point, maybe bargaining to see if it could bump it up to 32 or 33, but being happy with 30. Given that USC and UCLA were no longer going to be in the conference, that would have represented a sand save after hitting the fairway drive into the bunker. It wouldn’t have been an amazing deal, but it would have been a competitive deal and given the conference stability.

Let’s process this huge story and what it means on multiple levels:

Source tells Pac-12 columnist the league will get more money than Big 12

A well-placed source told @JohnCanzanoBFT that the #Pac12 will get more $ than the #Big12. Hello, Amazon.

Big news broke on Sunday morning when the Big 12 Conference finalized its media rights package with ESPN and Fox Sports. The Big 12 earned more money per school than in its previous deal, fetching roughly $31.7 million per school for 12 member institutions once Oklahoma and Texas leave for the SEC.

As you know, Big 12 and Pac-12 fans and journalists have had plenty of vigorous debates over the past few months since USC and UCLA announced their Big Ten move on June 30. The Big 12 definitely exceeded industry expectations with this deal. Commissioner Brett Yormark clearly did well. Notions of a revenue decrease with OU and Texas gone did not materialize. Yormark refuted his critics, some of them in the Pac-12.

Now the Pac-12 and George Kliavkoff are under huge pressure to deliver a competitive package which stands up to the Big 12 and ensures that the Arizona schools, Utah, and Colorado have no temptation to leave the Pac for the Big 12.

One Pac-12 columnist thinks the conference will not only achieve that goal, but will actually fetch more money per school than the Big 12 will.

Let’s go through John Canzano’s argument and lay it out in full:

Big 12 lands new 6-year media rights deal with ESPN and Fox; what it means for Pac-12

Big news: The #Big12 inks a media rights deal. Does this mean it is about to raid the #Pac12 and bring about its extinction?

Big off-field news emerged on Sunday morning. The Big 12 Conference struck a deal with ESPN and Fox Sports, a six-year media rights package which had been a central topic of discussion in the college sports world.

The Big 12’s deal is a $380 million annual package, which translates to just under $31.7 million for each of the 12 schools which will be part of the conference after Texas and Oklahoma leave. BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston will join the eight current non-Texas, non-OU schools. It is expected that Texas and Oklahoma will not leave the Big 12 until 2025 to reduce their exit fee payments and other related costs.

Let’s go through the numbers and the meaning of the deal, as relayed by Jon Wilner and other industry insiders: