$170 million Pac-12 media deal with Apple TV still remains a fair possibility, with Stanford and Cal leaving the Pacific

The Pac-12 could continue its media rights deal with Apple. The Pac-12 and commissioner George Kliavkoff entered this summer needing a new media rights deal, as the deal had one year left.

Unfortnately, it took longer than expected to get a deal done, and Pac-12 schools began to look to join other conferences. Eventually, Kliavkoff ended up securing a deal with Apple, which was mostly streaming, but the payouts did not compare to the other conferences.

With that, more and more schools left the Pac-12, and now the conference is down to four schools. However, all signs point to Stanford and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference which would leave only Oregon State and Washington State with the Pac-12.

Although the Pac-12 would be down to just two schools, the conference is adamant that they would remain. There's a chance to add schools or merge with the Mountain West Conference or American Athletic Conference.

If a merger happens, there's a chance that the Apple streaming deal - worth $170 million a year - could come back to fruition.

On paper, those conferences do make sense and still have enough notable teams for Apple to still be interested.

Moreover, the deal was reportedly better than most thought. Arizona State president Michael Crow spoke on the radio that he's a fan of the deal but other schools weren't, which triggered his decision to leave:

"So from my perspective, you kept the Pac-12 together as a regional conference. And then you’d have this whole new way to broadcast digitally all of your content. Most of us thought that was a pretty good deal, including me.

"Along the way, others didn’t think that was a good deal. Maybe Apple shouldn’t do that. At the last second, the Big Ten, working, I would guess, with their media groups picked off two teams.”

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Pac-12 yet to announce new schools/merger

Although the Pac-12's Apple streaming deal could still be on the table, for it to remain so, more schools will need to be added to the conference.

However, the Pac-12 and commissioner George Kliavkoff has yet to announce any new schools to be added or merging with a new conference. The hope for fans of Pac-12 football is that something can be figured out soon, but at the moment, the Pac-12 is a two-team conference.