ESPN Reportedly Pulls Out of Pac-12 Rights Negotiations, Bringing Uncertainty to Confernece’s Broadcast Future

The Pac-12 may find itself showing up to Homecoming without its longtime dance partner if recent reports turn out to be true.

According to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, ESPN will likely not pursue a package for the Pac-12's top-tier games, but may consider a package for smaller, late-night contests to bolster its all-day college football programming. This would mean that Pac-12 football games for the conference’s top schools like Oregon and Washington would be available to the highest bidder — with a bid that likely won’t be nearly as high as what other conferences have recently received.

With ESPN and FOX — the conference’s current partners — not showing much interest, another broadcasting entity could swoop in and nab the top-tier rights. NBCUniversal seems like the most likely destination, with the conference potentially headed for USA Network to bolster the cable channel’s sports programming. Following the dissolution of NBC Sports Network, USA Network has been NBCUniversal’s home for most sports content that wouldn’t cut it on the main NBC feed. This includes Premier League Soccer matchups, USFL games, NASCAR races, WWE programming, Olympics coverage, and Atlantic 10 college basketball games.

It’s interesting that ESPN would be unwilling to add the Pac-12 considering it recently lost the Big Ten for the first time in 40 years. Granted, ESPN and ABC will now air a larger chunk of SEC football thanks to that conference’s recent rights deal, but with so much programming space available, having an Oregon or Washington game in their back pocket sure wouldn’t hurt. ESPN may simply figure the league isn’t worth it without USC and UCLA, who are departing the conference for the Big Ten following this fall’s season.

ESPN also has to figure in future negotiations, such as the upcoming NBA rights deals as well as UFC. The NBA deal is likely to fetch a high dollar amount, as will UFC, especially following its planned corporate merger with WWE under the Endeavor banner.

As for the Pac-12, they’d better hope NBCU comes through. If the Comcast-owned company isn’t interested, we could see a few other players enter the conversation. The E.W. Scripps Company has been adding national sports to their offerings with the WNBA on Friday nights and having college football broadcast rights in any capacity would be seen as a huge win. A FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) service like Stadium could also be a potential destination that would open up new, fresh avenues for viewership. In the past, both Apple and Prime Video have reportedly been interested in airing Pac-12 games, but nothing concrete has yet come from that.

Regardless, the Pac-12 has until the summer of 2024 to figure something out, but it’s clear the good times are behind them.