$500 million Pac-12 media deal from Apple TV got rejected by the presidents board only to rip the FBS powerhouse: Reports

The Pac-12 entered the summer needing a new media rights deal, which took much longer than expected.

The conference saw USC and UCLA bolt to the Big 10, and after the media rights deal was delayed, Colorado departed to the Big 12. However, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff finally got a deal done with Apple.

The early reports were that the deal was unconvincing, and Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Arizona State all left the conference. It was tough for the Pac-12, but ASU president Michael Crow recently talked to Mike Broomhead about the media rights deal, and he thought it was a good deal at first.

“We had what I thought was a great offer from Apple. Most of the fan base didn’t think it was a great deal but I don’t think they knew that much about it."

"So basically what the Apple deal was is Apple would spend $500 million the first year to take all of the football games, all the men’s basketball games, all the women’s basketball games, in the Pac-12 digitally capture them and make them available to everyone. You could play the games whenever you wanted to play them. That’s a huge, huge, huge thing."

Unfortunately, according to Crow, other schools didn't like the deal as much as he did, and other conferences came along and added more teams. The news disappointed the president as he wanted to remain with the Pac-12 but had no choice.

"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.”

ASU to join Big 12

After more schools departed the Pac-12 due to its media rights deal, ASU ended up joining the Big 12.

ASU and Arizona were reportedly set to do whatever the other school did as they wanted to keep the rivalry together. Along with the two schools, Utah also joined the Big 12 after Colorado made the jump.

The schools will still be a member of the Pac-12 for this upcoming college football season, as they will be officially joining the Big 12 for the 2024-25 athletic season.