The fall of the Pac-12 happened quickly last week when six teams committed to move to other conferences, but the writing has been on the wall for the while. As the Pac-12 tried to get a new media deal with Apple, it became clear that the conference had limited options for exposure.
At one point during its media rights negotiations, though, the Pac-12 had a chance to agree to a new TV deal with ESPN. However, the conference fumbled negotiations, leading to ESPN walking away from the deal.
Oregon insider John Canzano reports that in 2022, ESPN had an offer out to the Pac-12 that would have given each school $30 million annually for the media rights as part of the deal. However, when the board then asked ESPN to raise that number to $50 million, ESPN walked away completely.
