After 108 years, the Oregon Ducks are leaving the Pac-12 Conference. Hello, Big Ten.
In 1915, the University of Oregon was one of the charter members of a new college athletic conference called the Pacific Coast Conference. It joined forces with the University of California, the University of Washington and Oregon State University.
Now, 108 years later, the Ducks are leaving that conference and heading for greener pastures.
Per multiple reports, Oregon is expected to formally accept an invitation to the Big Ten Conference, following in the footsteps of both the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins, who blazed the path from the West Coast to the Midwest more than a year ago.
The Big Ten is expected to hold a vote this afternoon to agree on extending an invite to the Pac-12 schools, but that is expected to be a unanimous, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
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Oregon’s move to the Big Ten was thrown into doubt early on Friday morning. Multiple reports indicated talks “lost momentum” overnight and that Pac-12 presidents were expected to meet with intentions of signing the grant of rights. However, the meeting concluded without a consensus agreement, leaving the door open for the Ducks and Washington Huskies to continue their Big Ten conversations.
With the addition of Oregon and Washington, the Big Ten has 18 members. There is the possibility the conference further expands to 20 teams, but nothing is likely at this point, per multiple reports.
Oregon’s departure from the Pac-12 initially became a serious possibility a year ago in the wake of the move by the Trojans and Bruins. But it was the defection of both the Colorado Buffaloes and Arizona Wildcats in the past 10 days, that got the ball rolling. Both Colorado and Arizona left the Pac-12 for the Big 12 Conference, which further weakened the Pac-12 and made a move to safer waters imperative for the Ducks and others.
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The move was also aided by a lack of confidence in the media revenue deal Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff brought forth.
After almost a year of negotiating with TV partners, Kliavkoff presented a deal to conference presidents earlier this week that was seen as less than stellar. Per multiple reports, the deal was based primarily on streaming with Apple TV, worth an estimated $24 million per year for each remaining school in the conference. The reported deal was to be based on a subscription model to reach the higher end of the revenue projections.
With a lack of confidence in the financials being offered in the Pac-12, it made sense that Oregon would jump to the Big Ten. The conference owns the richest TV revenue deal in the nation — an estimated $8 billion deal with NBC, CBS and Fox that lasts through the 2029-2030 season.
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To get the Big Ten invite, Oregon had to agree to accept a fraction of that revenue in the early years. Still, the Associated Press reports the Ducks will get between $30-35 million per year as part of this deal.
With Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA — four of the biggest brands in the conference — leaving the Pac-12 over the last year, the most pertinent question is where the “Conference of Champions” goes from here.
The most likely scenario is the remaining Four Corner schools — Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah — follow Colorado to the Big 12. That would leave Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal with nowhere to go. They have a few options, such as merging with the Mountain West Conference or inviting other Group of Five schools to join what would be a new-look Pac-12. However, it’s clear nothing they do would maintain the level of relevancy and fame they have possessed for more than a century.
The landscape of college football forever shifted with Oregon’s move to the Big Ten, for good or for bad.
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