The Pac-12 has moved one step nearer to finishing its rebuild, asserting Monday that CBS would be the main TV companion for its new media rights deal.
The information comes because the convention appears to complete its full TV deal and add an eighth football-playing member to succeed in NCAA necessities by subsequent season. The complete TV deal is just not but full, with at the very least two extra media companions anticipated to fill out the plan.
CBS would be the anchor companion of a five-year deal from 2026 to 2031. The principle CBS community will broadcast at the very least three regular-season Pac-12 soccer video games and the convention championship sport, together with at the very least three males’s basketball video games and the convention match championship sport. These will all be streamed on Paramount Plus, and the soccer championship sport is anticipated to return to its Friday evening slot. Monetary particulars weren’t disclosed.
The convention may even have a regular-season presence on CBS Sports activities Community. Full particulars aren’t but obtainable as a result of the Pac-12 continues to be speaking with different corporations in regards to the rights to video games. This CBS deal is technically an extension, as CBS will air two video games this coming fall for Oregon State and Washington State as a part of an settlement that additionally contains ESPN and The CW.
The brand new Pac-12 is ready to incorporate present members Oregon State and Washington State, together with new members Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Gonzaga (non-football).
With the TV deal nearing completion, the Pac-12 has been in dialog with colleges for that eighth football-playing spot. Texas State from the Solar Belt has been the favourite, based on individuals briefed on the method, however nothing has been finalized. The plan had been to complete the TV deal earlier than growth, however we’re getting near July 1, which is a key date in school sports activities as a result of exit price buyouts to go away a convention in lower than a yr will enhance. For Texas State, that Solar Belt exit price would bounce from $5 million to $10 million.
Whereas American Athletic Convention colleges like Memphis, Tulane and UTSA have been within the dialog, the exorbitant exit price value and beneficial ESPN TV deal have saved them with the American. SMU paid an exit price of greater than $25 million to go away the AAC for the ACC on lower than one yr’s discover, and any of these colleges would probably need to pay one thing related.
The eight colleges onboard to date have signed a grant of rights, which fits by way of June 2031, based on membership phrases made final yr and obtained by The Athletic. These phrases point out media rights shall be shared equally throughout all full members. That’s notable amid hypothesis across the thought Texas State could possibly be introduced in at lower than a full share. Faculties may even hold 50 p.c of any earned NCAA basketball match items for themselves and share the remaining 50 p.c equally.
The Faculty Soccer Playoff will take away its participation bonus in 2026, however Pac-12 membership phrases state Oregon State and Washington State will hold all income related to a three-year CFP settlement from 2026 to ’28, together with all NCAA items earned earlier than this yr, per the doc. OSU and WSU additionally management Pac-12 money reserves stemming from the separation settlement with the ten departed members, together with the power to distribute it to themselves.
How the Pac-12 obtained right here
The “Convention of Champions” appeared set to vanish after greater than a century of historical past when the Pac-12 collapsed in its former type, with 10 of 12 colleges asserting their departures for the Massive Ten and Massive 12. However Oregon State and Washington State, the 2 remaining colleges, stated they’d first attempt to rebuild the convention. The pair made a soccer scheduling settlement with the Mountain West for the 2024 season, however when the perimeters couldn’t come to phrases on a 2025 schedule, the Pac-12 went on the offensive.
4 Mountain West colleges introduced final September they’d bounce to the Pac-12 with OSU and WSU, shedding the MWC colleges they felt didn’t make investments as a lot. The group turned to varsities within the AAC like Memphis, Tulane, South Florida and UTSA, hoping to create a prime convention outdoors the Energy 4. However questions and issues in regards to the Pac-12’s monetary projections, together with the price of leaving the AAC and that ESPN TV deal, led these colleges to remain put. The Pac-12 turned again to Mountain West choices and satisfied Utah State to affix, however UNLV and Air Power stayed put, due to tens of hundreds of thousands in monetary ensures from the Mountain West for staying.
The Pac-12 added basketball powerhouse and non-football faculty Gonzaga, nevertheless it has remained one soccer faculty in need of the eight members required by July 2026. The league put growth on pause and centered on securing its media rights deal, getting concrete numbers to take again to potential members. The Pac-12 says its members final yr would’ve been a top-five league within the males’s basketball common NET ranking, however soccer drives the vast majority of the TV worth.
In April, the 2 present Pac-12 members introduced their 2025 TV take care of ESPN, CBS and The CW, indicating a bigger deal for the brand new convention can be completed quickly. But it surely’s now late June and it nonetheless hasn’t been completed.
What’s subsequent?
Although Texas State is taken into account the favourite to fill that final Pac-12 spot, it’s not a completed deal.
Some officers within the Pac-12 have needed to get into Texas, and Texas State would fill that void. The Bobcats are coming off their two finest soccer seasons as an FBS program and have received three of the previous 4 Vic Bubas Cups, signifying the top-performing Solar Belt faculty throughout all sports activities. It’s additionally one of many fastest-growing colleges in Texas, with greater than 40,000 college students in San Marcos, situated between Austin and San Antonio. Texas State additionally had discussions with the Mountain West final yr.
Texas State wins the Solar Belt’s Vic Bubas Cup, which fits to the highest athletic division within the league. Second straight and third within the final 4 years. pic.twitter.com/qbvuZGU2l3
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) June 5, 2025
Whereas trade and Pac-12 sources have individually mentioned the concept of including Memphis as a football-only member if the Tigers might get the remainder of their sports activities within the Massive East, it wouldn’t fill the NCAA requirement and sure wouldn’t be speedy anyway. Memphis obtained round $11 million from the AAC final yr, which the Pac-12 or a mix of leagues might not have the ability to supply.
Memphis athletic director Ed Scott additionally appeared to throw some chilly water on the notion final week. He instructed native reporters he has not had any substantive conversations with the Massive East, and that Memphis was extra centered on going larger.
“I do know that (Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould is) apprehensive about discovering her eighth full member. I’m apprehensive about attempting to get us right into a Energy 4 convention,” Scott stated. “That’s our first purpose, unequivocally. That’s at all times been our purpose.”
Faculties that withdraw from the Pac-12 earlier than June 30, 2031, would owe damages to the convention, even when leaving for a Energy 4 convention, based on the membership phrases.
Regardless of the Pac-12’s determination is, it might set off extra convention realignment. The Solar Belt would probably transfer shortly and exchange Texas State with Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky or Center Tennessee from Convention USA, based on an individual briefed on the Solar Belt’s pondering. CUSA is ready to increase this yr to 12 colleges by including Delaware and Missouri State from the Soccer Championship Subdivision. If the league did lose a faculty and attempt to backfill, it wouldn’t have the ability to add one other FCS program till 2027 on the earliest due to the FCS-FBS transition course of.
The Pac-12 might additionally attempt to add extra affiliate members in sports activities like basketball or baseball. However that may’t come till the TV deal and soccer growth are completed.
July will mark 4 years since Texas and Oklahoma introduced their transfer to the SEC. The trickle-down impact of that transfer continues to be ongoing. It practically led to the top of the Pac-12 by the hands of the Massive Ten and Massive 12. However this lengthy, winding spherical of convention realignment on the FBS stage might lastly come to an finish comparatively quickly.
(High photograph: Loren Orr / Getty Pictures)
