Report: Pac-12 Not Expected to Have Media Rights Deal Done by Conference’s Media Day

The Pac-12’s media day is Friday, but there will be a looming cloud over the festivities.

The league won’t have a new TV deal set to announce, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, meaning conference realignment talks are likely to see an uptick this weekend.

Fighting for its survival, the Big 12 jumped the Pac-12 in line at the negotiating table, with reports of the Big 12’s new TV deal surfacing back in October. With USC and UCLA exiting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, the Pac-12 has been unable to secure a new media rights deal to this point.

The “four corner schools” of Colorado, Utah, Arizona State and Arizona have been linked with moves to the Big 12 at some point over the past year with Colorado most recently seeming the most likely. Should the Pac-12’s media right negotiations continue to drag out, the likelihood of a school leaving the conference only grows.

The Pac-12’s current media rights deal with ESPN and FOX is set to end next July. ESPN and FOX are both partners with the Big 12 in its new deal. The Big 12’s new deal doesn’t start until 2025.

The expectation is that the Pac-12 will have a new deal to announce before the 2023 season kicks off, according to Dellenger, but a few “deadlines” have come and gone since the Pac-12 started this process. With the deal not coming before the conference’s media day, this likely extends the Pac-12’s negotiations into August, according to Dellenger.

Even without the Pac-12 having a deal to announce, Friday ought to be an interesting day in the conference realignment landscape as Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff steps to the podium at 10 a.m. central time.