The meeting lasted the better part of an hour, and while school officials have yet to decide on the primary suitor’s proposal, Apple’s offer may be up for a vote before the end of the week. If nothing else, the latest irresolution is in keeping with a process that’s dragged out for the last 13 months.

In the 392 days since the Pac-12 board authorized Kliavkoff to begin pursuing a new rights deal, the process has been fraught with uncertainty. The conference began sniffing around potential partners shortly after USC and UCLA announced plans to join the Big Ten following the 2023-24 academic year, and today’s presentation took place in the wake of Colorado’s disclosure that it intends to return to the Big 12 next year.

The winnowing down of the Pac-12 roster has undermined the conference’s previous expectations of what a new deal might be worth. While Kliavkoff & Co. initially hoped to come within shouting distance of the Big 12’s negotiated windfall of $31 million per school per year, the offer made to the Pac-12 is just south of $20 million a pop. That’s for an exclusive streaming-only pact, which could be augmented to some degree should Apple agree to sublicense a smaller linear-TV package to ESPN.

By way of comparison, SEC schools are slated to each receive more than $66 million per year as of 2024, when ESPN’s new $3 billion deal with the conference kicks in. Meanwhile, the Big Ten last year paid out nearly $59 million to 11 of its 14 member schools, with relative newcomers Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska receiving a smaller cut than the legacy programs.

Unfortunately for the Pac-12, that cited figure likely isn’t sufficient to prevent other schools from jumping ship. Arizona is also said to be working on an exit strategy, and word around the campfire has had powerhouses Oregon and Washington eyeballing a Big 12 or Big Ten berth. (Officials from both Pacific Northwest schools have had informal discussions with the latter conference, although those talks have been characterized as 10,000-foot overviews rather than street-level dealings.)

At present, only nine football programs remain aligned with the Pac-12. Utah is one of the only members that has made an unequivocal declaration of fealty to the conference, as AD Mark Hanlan last month said the Utes had no intention of bolting. “We are a proud member of this conference and look forward to its future success,” Hanlan said during Utah’s media-day scrum. He made these remarks while seated just a few feet from Kliavkoff.

yahoo.com

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