It’s pretty hard to tell what, exactly, is going to happen with the Pac-12’s next media rights deal.
Everyone seems to have an opinion about the conference and whether or not it will be able to find a broadcasting partner (or two) who are willing to pay them something in the ballpark of what the Big 12 is getting from Fox and ESPN.
While some close to the conference have painted a rosy outlook, others tell a story of a conference that got caught off-guard and is scrambling to save its skin before more member schools leave for greener pastures.
CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd caught up with University of Arizona president Robert Robbins just days before he leaves for an international trip that he won’t return from until mid-April. Perhaps hoping for any kind of update regarding negotiations and potential media partners, Dodd instead learned that, as far as Robbins is concerned, there’s still nothing to report.
“I have heard nothing to suggest [a deal is] imminent,” Robbins told CBS Sports. “There’s all these things about, well, ‘We want to wait until [after] the Final Four.’ That has nothing to do with it. It has to do with assessing who is the right fit, who assesses us.
“I hope [commissioner George Kliavkoff] gets something done sooner rather than later so that the whole thing stops, so we don’t have focus on it. [But] I am perfectly willing to sit here and wait.”
Speculation over the networks and streaming services that could be in the mix for Pac-12 games will continue to run rampant in the meantime. However, Robbins seems pretty sure that most of the Pac-12’s games will be available on a linear partner.
“This whole streaming thing? That’s overplayed,” Robbins said. “I think this deal is going to have a heavy traditional analog cable [piece]. I think. There may some streaming in it, but I don’t think anybody would want to go majority streaming.”
Robbins made headlines a few weeks back when he seemed to imply that Arizona was considering a move to the Big 12 if a satisfactory Pac-12 media deal didn’t come to fruition. He clarified those remarks a bit to Dodd, saying that he only meant to suggest that if the Pac-12 were to end up in trouble, the school might have some options.
“It wasn’t because I was emboldened because we have options,” Robbins said. “There is no deal or no agreement where, if everything blows up, we’ve got someplace to go.”
For now, at least, all of the possibilities remain open when it comes to where the Pac-12 goes from here.
