Pac-12 media deal from Apple worth $25 million could have reached close to Big 12's $31.7 million: Reports

The Pac-12 media deal with Apple TV was eventually not voted on. Many laughed it off due to the financial aspects involved, but turns out that the teams could have made similar money to other Power Five conferences. There was one issue about it, though: the reach was incentivized.

College football insider Jim Wiliams has tweeted that the Pac-12 never voted on the Apple deal, but he learned about the terms. Apple TV was prepared to pay each program $24-25 million per year, a figure that could have jumped to $30 million had they reached 2.5 million subscribers.

There were a few issues with this Pac-12 media deal that could have stunted the growth. However, they would have been quite comparable to the $31.7 million per year the Big 12 is getting in their own media deal. The only issue is the fact that the subscriber count is almost impossible to reach.

Apple TV did not see a jump in their Q1 2023 numbers, which made things a lot more difficult. With the addition of Lionel Messi to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, the numbers should jump, but 2.5 million subscribers is asking a lot for in Pac-12 football.

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What's next for the Pac-12 media deal, with Apple TV not happening?

The Pac-12 media deal is essentially cooked at this point, as they're not in a good position right now. The Pac-12 has four teams remaining in the conference - Oregon State, Washington State, California and Stanford. They are not going to get a good media rights deal with those teams as the face of the conference.

The Pac-12 needs to figure out its future as they have lost eight of their 12 teams heading into the media deal. That means they would need a merger for things to happen. With the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Mountain West Conference as two possibilities, there are two extremely different price points for the conference depending on what they do.

There's also the possibility that the Pac-12 media rights do not happen, and the conference dissolves. Unfortunately for college football historians, that seems to be a likely road after the Big 12 and Big Ten ransacked the conference of its valuable universities.

Unless there's a merger, the Pac-12 media deal is unlikely to happen.