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SALT LAKE CITY — In the end, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was wrong.
Playing the waiting game on a media rights deal proved to be too much for Pac-12 members. Just over a week after the University of Colorado approved a move back to the Big 12, the conference all but crumbled after five remaining members of the conference, including Utah, made a move to join a different conference Friday.
After a back-and-forth day of Pac-12 survival hanging in the balance, the University of Utah's board of trustees voted unanimously Friday night to accept an invitation to join the Big 12 starting in 2024. The move followed suit with the remaining Four Corner schools Arizona and Arizona State, who will also join the Big 12 in 2024.
"We are thrilled to welcome Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12," Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. "The conference is gaining three premier institutions both academically and athletically, and the entire Big 12 looks forward to working alongside their presidents, athletic directors, student-athletes and administrators."
Oregon and Washington accepted an invitation from the Big Ten for a reduced share of the conference's new media rights Friday afternoon, destabilizing an already fractured Pac-12.
The Pac-12 met early Friday in an effort to sign a grant of rights agreement for a new media rights deal and explore expansion that was expected to keep the conference afloat, according to multiple reports, but the schools could not come to an agreement. Hours later, the Big Ten met to formally vote upon accepting Oregon and Washington into the conference.
University of Utah President Taylor Randall said he was "grateful" for the "hard work" of the members of the Pac-12 to get a deal, but "ultimately, stronger forces within national collegiate athletics and the greater media landscape brought us to today's decision. I am hopeful the relationships we have made over the past 12 years within the Pac-12 remain strong."
"Being part of the Pac-12 has elevated the University of Utah and demonstrated our student-athletes can compete at the highest levels on and off the field, our move to the Big 12 will not change that position," Randall said. "I want to be clear that our focus and mission is to provide world-class education, research, service, and patient care. Joining the Big 12 accelerates our progress in all four areas. We are making this change because it helps us on our path to become a top 10 public university with unsurpassed societal impact."
Ahead of Oregon and Washington's move to the Big Ten, there were rumblings for months that the Big 12 had pursued the Four Corner schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — but at least three of them, Utah included, had hoped to see a competitive media rights deal materialize from the Pac-12 before jumping to another conference.
Big 12 Conference Adds Arizona, Arizona State and Utah pic.twitter.com/Or4ypfW7d8
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) August 5, 2023
Utah athletic director Mark Harlan even tweeted over the summer, "Give me a break," on a report Utah was talking to the Big 12. Utah, in particular, was loyal to the Pac-12 and was patiently waiting for a deal.
"We believe, and still believe, that for Utah it is to be in this conference," Harlan told KSL.com during Pac-12 media day in July. "We've had great success in this conference, our university's profile has been raised with these institutions. And if there is a path to move forward, we believe it's in this conference, and we're seeing that path emerge."
That path never emerged and the Pac-12 ultimately crumbled.
With the addition of the three remaining Four Corner schools, the Big 12 will sit at 16 members. Based on the pro rata option in the Big 12's contract, the two Arizona schools and Utah are expected to become full members, which means they're eligible for the full $31 million starting in 2024.
On Tuesday, Kliavkoff presented a mostly streaming-based deal to the remaining Pac-12 members that involved Apple, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel, but for a reportedly lower deal than the Big 12's expected $31 million per team — about $10 million less per team. Despite Kliavkoff's statements at media day that the longer the conference waited the better the deals got, nothing substantive came.
Even a last-ditch Hail Mary by Kliavkoff Friday morning wasn't enough to keep the remaining schools from wanting a more stable future. The conference has not completely shuttered, however, as California, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State remain the only members of the conference. It's a bleak future for the four remaining teams.
