J. Brady McCollough: Is the Pac-12 really this bad? Why the league has no TV deal without USC and UCLA.
LOS ANGELES — A few days after USC and UCLA forever altered the college sports landscape with their move to the Big Ten Conference last summer, the Pac-12 announced that it would begin its exclusive 90-day negotiating window with ESPN and Fox for its long-awaited next media rights agreement.
The move by Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to begin that process early was meant to quickly gather information that, at least theoretically, could calm the nerves of the remaining 10 schools and keep them from looking to follow the Los Angeles schools out the door to surer footing.
But nine months have passed, and the Pac-12 remains without an agreement.
Meanwhile in October, just weeks after the Pac-12's exclusivity window closed, the Big 12 jumped the Pac-12 in line, negotiating a new six-year deal with ESPN and Fox worth $2.3 billion. Remember, in the summer of 2021 the Big 12 had been left for dead by many after Texas and Oklahoma
