The long-awaited Pac-12 media rights deal will not be announced at Friday’s Pac-12 Football Media Day, as first reported by ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!A Pac-12 source told me the league expects to release details of its media rights deal in the “near future,” but it will NOT be announced at Pac-12 football media day on Friday in Las Vegas. More on https://t.co/AdBtluybSv. Source said waiting led to more bidders in the convo.
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) July 18, 2023
New bidders have emerged, according to an anonymous source in the story, which is why there will be no announcement. The source also said that the deal will be on par with the ACC and Big 12 in terms of a mix of streaming and linear options.
“We’ve seen folks come to the table that were not at the table six months ago,” another anonymous source told The Athletic. “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.”
It has been over a year (July 5, 2022) since the Pac-12 first allowed the conference to start negotiations for a new TV deal. All of the realignment news, especially the fact that the Pac-12 will lose the Los Angeles market when USC and UCLA leave and that no other teams have joined the conference, have corroded the whole process.
The realignment speculation is now even more up in the air, as there are new reports that San Diego State will not be leaving the Mountain West.
San Diego State originally sent the Mountain West a letter announcing its *intention* to withdraw; the MWC took it as a formal withdrawal & withheld distribution.
After Pac-12 failed to finalize a new TV deal by SDSU’s June 30 deadline, SDSU requested it remain a MWC member.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 19, 2023
Even though its current TV contract ended a year after the Pac-12, the Big 12 announced it was starting negotiations after the Pac-12 and got a massive $2.2 billion deal with Fox and ESPN through 2031 agreed upon quickly.
People are wondering when, if ever, the Pac-12 deal will get done, as there have been conflicting reports time and time again.
Time to update this bad boy https://t.co/AMh51KG97T pic.twitter.com/C9xBJB1QnY
— Ben Visser (@BenVisser43) July 18, 2023
It will be seen if Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff addresses anything regarding a media rights deal or realignment news when he speaks to the media at 8 a.m. MST on Friday at Pac-12 media day in Vegas.
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Brendan Mau is a college sports insider and general assignment reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on Twitter via @Brendan_Mau
