Sources tell CBS Sports that the Big Ten has started thinking about adding Oregon, Washington, California, and Stanford to its 16-team conference.
League members are having preliminary discussions about expanding the league to as many as 20 teams. While Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford – – all Pac-12 individuals – – are the projects getting looked at by the association, Oregon and Washington are the essential center should the Huge Ten decided to grow by two projects and become a 18-group gathering.
These exploratory discussions are at their earliest stages for an association that had apparently shut the entryway on additional development in the wake of moving to 16 individuals following the options of USC and UCLA from the Pac-12. The Trojans and Bruins will join the Enormous Ten toward the beginning of the 2024-25 athletic season.
In a statement provided to CBS Sports, the league stated, “The Big Ten Conference is still focused on integration of USC and UCLA, but it is also commissioner’s job to keep conference chancellors and presidents informed about new developments as they occur.”
No further increments are inevitable, as Yippee Sports initially revealed. Nonetheless, with the Enormous 12 adding Colorado from the Pac-12 last week and a proposed media freedoms bargain from Pac-12 chief George Kliavkoff not giving off an impression of being monetarily worthwhile enough for different groups in the association, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are presently contemplating comparable moves to the Huge 12.
Would it be a good idea for one (Arizona) or every one of the three projects deformity, the Pac-12 could be down to as not many as six individuals with Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford the most conspicuous colleges remaining. ( Oregon State, Washington State are the others.) The Big Ten might then find it prudent to intensify its pursuit of acquiring the best remaining programs.
Pac-12 schools are hesitant to take action that would unwind the meeting, sources say. In any case, in numerous ways, the market has spoken with the Pac-12’s best media privileges offer seeming, by all accounts, to be a streaming-focus Apple television bargain that would apparently net projects roughly $20 million every year, more than $10 million less each year than their Huge 12 partners. ( Lifts could push the Apple television bargain higher.) Potential straight TV accomplices don’t have all the earmarks of being keen on a huge rights bundle with the Pac-12.
The Pac-12 was in jeopardy when USC and UCLA announced their departures in June 2022. Without the Los Angeles media market in play, the meeting’s worth has dove. The association stays without a media rights bargain got past the impending 2023-24 season.
Following Kliavkoff’s meeting with university leadership on Tuesday, all eyes will be on the Pac-12 for the time being to see if there are any further developments. The “Four Corners” schools of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah were for some time considered Enormous 12 development focuses before the Huge 12 effectively tricked the Bison back to their old home.
San Diego State and SMU are among those linked as expansion candidates for the Pac-12 if the conference were to largely remain together and need to add more schools.
