George Kliavkoff's Pac-12 media deal rebuild with Apple TV goes down the drain with no agreements made in the first meeting: Reports

The Pac-12 media deal has been struggling to come along, but we are seemingly getting closer to an announcement. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff reportedly has an agreement in place with Apple TV, but it is not getting great responses from the universities.

Kliavkoff was said to present the proper agreement in a meeting with conference presidents Tuesday morning. As per college insider Brett McMurphy, the schools have found the media rights deal "very challenging" to "accurately budget annual revenue."

McMurphy also reported that another meeting is scheduled to take place, but the details surrounding it have yet to be made public. The Pac-12 media deal is a huge topic of conversation, and with 11 months remaining on its current contract, it is critical for the conference to agree to terms.

This deal will determine the health of the Pac-12 as teams will decide if they want to remain or leave based on the revenue generated from it. For example, the Big 12 has a distribution share of $31.7 million, so the more teams earn, the better chance they have of staying.

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What is the holdup on a Pac-12 media deal?

Conference Realignment Football

The Pac-12 media deal has been one of the biggest topics of conversation in the college football world. The league has already lost three centerpieces in the Colorado Buffaloes to the Big 12 and the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins to the Big Ten beginning in 2024.

The Pac-12 media deal had to be constructed knowing those three programs were no longer part of the conference, which significantly drives the price down.

Another holdup on the agreement seems to be the availability of linear television coverage. If the reports are accurate and Apple appears to be the likely media rights provider, they have no linear television channels, which hinders chances of watching the Pac-12 games.

A media rights contract with Apple for the conference likely will be similar to what Major League Soccer currently has. They are behind a paywall, so only subscribers to the Apple TV platform can see the content going on.

That means there is no chance that someone who is channel surfing could land on a Pac-12 game unless they are an Apple TV subscriber.

That is a little concerning but not completely groundbreaking.

Peacock currently homes the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as an independent team, but they also air on NBC. This contract makes more sense as they are not under a conference umbrella and still have linear television programming.

The rumored deal has some financial security for the Pac-12 but also some drawbacks. It will be interesting to see how the presidents of the universities react to this idea.