Oregon, Washington to Join Big Ten in Latest Blow to Pac-12; What Impacts will Moves Have on Streaming for Both Conferences?

The Pac-12 may end up having to pack it in before long. The 108-year-old athletic conference is losing two of its nine remaining schools, as the University of Washington and University of Oregon have agreed to preliminary deals to join the Big Ten starting in 2024.

Big 12 officials have already approved the addition of the University of Arizona to that conference, which also added the University of Colorado from the Pac-12 last week. Arizona State and the University of Utah could also head to the Big 12, and their departures would leave the Pac-12 with just four teams: Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State.

Yahoo! Sports reports that Oregon and Washington agreed to take a lower percentage of revenues that the Big Ten secured in its most recent media deal. That contract is expected to pay its member schools northward of $60 million each, but the newest additions may have to take half that amount. Still, that would give them each more money than they would have seen in the new proposed Pac-12 media deal, which reportedly would pay its schools closer to $20-$25 million.

One of the big reasons the deal under discussion by Pac-12 member schools is so much lower in terms of dollars than the Big Ten’s contract is how heavily focused it is on streaming. Pac-12 games will be primarily available to stream on Apple TV+ or a new Apple streaming service developed specifically to house college sports under the terms of the proposal.

The Big Ten, on the other hand, will show its games on Fox, NBC and CBS as stipulated by its latest contract. That means Big Ten contests will stream on Peacock and Paramount+ with Showtime in addition to their linear broadcasts, while the Pac-12 could not find a partner to air more than 50% of its games on television in its latest round of negotiations.

It’s not clear if Apple’s offer to the Pac-12 will remain on the table after the departure of Oregon and Washington. If the deal is pulled, it could be the final straw for the conference, which would essentially be back to square one on its next media contract.

The Big Ten has faced some internal divisions over the structure of its new deal, and had issued a freeze on new schools joining the conference so it had more time to iron them out. But once Colorado bolted for the Big 12, conferences saw Pac-12 schools as ripe for the plucking, and the opportunity to add programs like Washington and Oregon for essentially half price was too good to pass up.

Fans of Oregon and Washington will see their games stream on Peacock and Paramount+ with Showtime beginning in the 2024 season. Audiences who follow the remaining Pac-12 schools should hold their breath and cross their fingers that no more schools leave the conference, because each program that departs is another nail in its coffin.