Pac-12 collapse inevitable as board members could reject Apple's media deal proposal; uncertainty looms over future of conference: Reports

The Pac-12 collapse from a once dominant conference seems to continue as Apple's media deal proposal seems to be dead on arrival.

The Monty Show on Twitter has reported that the presidents of the Pac-12 have decided that the deal is not worth pursuing for a myriad of reasons.

Losing the ability to be on linear television seems to be a non-starter. However, there are not many providers that are going to offer similar, if not more, money than Apple seems to be doing. Being almost exclusively streamed and behind a paywall is something that's going to be a negative for the Conference of Champions to grow back into a top league.

The current Pac-12 collapse is significant enough that they do not have a media rights deal signed with less than 11 months before their current one expires. Losing three programs (UCLA, USC and Colorado) in 2024 does not help either, but there needs to be a coming of minds quickly about the health of the league.

---

What does the Pac-12 collapse mean for the future?

The Pac-12 collapse tells us a lot about the program's future. For starters, the fact the best deal Commissioner George Kliavkoff brought to the table was almost exclusively streaming is not good.

The fact Kliavkoff thought that he could get $500 million on this media rights deal to the point that they left the early negotiating window without a deal shows the Pac-12 collapse.

The Apple TV deal could rise to $30 million per team, which would still fall short of the podium in terms of Power Five media rights deals. The future of the Conference of Champions seems extremely bleak, as they're not in a good position to thrive. Losing some top-tier college football programs to rival conferences is not good.

Without a strong media rights deal in place for the future, it'w difficult to continue expecting teams to stay with the conference that are valuable. Some teams that are viewed as Group of Five programs are going to stay for the money or prestige, but the stronger ones will get picked off one by one. The Pac-12 does not have the financial stability to keep them happy and will look for the grass to be greener.

The Pac-12 collapse has been well documented, but it's not being overhyped. It seems to be happening a lot quicker than many expected, and things need to turn around quickly or it could get a lot uglier quickly.