Colorado is reportedly leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big 12 next year. A formal announcement is expected to come Thursday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Colorado leaving Pac-12 to return to Big 12 in 2024, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. CU will receive full Big 12 share ($31.7M) from ESPN/Fox media deal. Buffs left because of Big 12 stability & Pac-12’s uncertainty, sources said. Announcement Thursdayhttps://t.co/IOo8LWAuTF pic.twitter.com/4Ilq91C0EO
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 26, 2023
The move comes after the President said last week that he was unhappy that the university was not presented any numbers in light of the looming Pac-12 rights rights deal negotations, as the current deal ends in 2024.
The Pac-12 announced they were negotiating a new deal all the way back on July 5, 2022 and still haven’t gotten a deal done. Even though the Big 12’s current TV contract ended a year after the Pac-12, the conference 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.
USC, UCLA and Colorado will now all leave the conference in 2024 and no school is set to join the Pac-12 until their media rights deal is negotiated, according to commissioner George Kliavkoff. The Pac-12 had the chance to announce the deal at Pac-12 Football Media Day, but did not end up doing so.
Colorado was in the Big 12 from 1996 to 2010 before leaving the conference for the Pac-12. They will receive a full share of the Big 12 media rights deal.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Colorado will not have to pay an exit fee to the Pac-12 because there is no media rights deal in place for the 2024-25 season.
Sources: Colorado is in discussions about a move to the Big 12, and the school has just completed a board meeting and scheduled another for tomorrow to discuss the move. The Big 12 is also holding a presidents meeting tonight where there's expected to be an expansion update.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 26, 2023
Could this mean another school is next? It is very likely now that a media rights deal will be even harder to agree on with the conference losing another school.
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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
