CFB insider reveals Pac-12's $500,000,000 media rights ambition that echoed $1,000,000,000 Big Ten TV contract at one point: Rumors

The Pac-12 media rights have been an ongoing discussion as their current deal expires on July 1, 2024. Commissioner George Kliavkoff has been working on getting that completed with the Big Ten TV contract as the framework.

However, losing the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins to the Big Ten and now, at least, the Colorado Buffaloes to the Big 12, it is going to be challenging.

In a recent story from national college football, writer Dennis Dodd wrote about the asking price Kliavkoff wanted for the Pac-12 media rights:

"Upon losing USC and UCLA, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff either could not or would not get a media rights deal done in an early negotiationing window last summer. That should have been the first indicatior of the league's diminishing value.

He further wrote:

There continue to be rumors the Pac-12 asked for as much as $500 million annually at one point. That's $50 million per team per year, which would have put the Pac-12 in the same orbit as the Big Ten."

What is the future for the Pac-12 media rights?

The Pac-12 media rights seem to have one of two directions to go and neither of them is promising. The first keeps the Pac-12 alive as they team up with a streaming service, such as Apple TV. The tech giants are located where the Pac-12 is primarily focused in: California.

The Pac-12 media rights will be interesting as if they join a streaming service, they will likely be behind a paywall. However, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish does this with Peacock and it is successful.

The second option for Pac-12 would be to merge with another conference. Whether it is merging with the ACC to give them a more national feel, or with a Group of Five conference, either way, they would have to admit some defeat in this situation and could be a bitter pill to swallow for the conference.

The Pac-12 TV deal is going to be something that is going to be studied because Kliavkoff either completely misread the room or fumbled the entire situation. Whatever the case is, this situation has seemingly been a disaster.