In what will either be a sign of conference solidarity or a meaningless gesture before schools start bailing, the Pac-12’s ten remaining schools have agreed (but not signed) on a new Grant of Rights.
Per John Canzano, the new Grant of Rights contains performance-based incentives for College Football Playoff revenue. This is similar to the ACC’s new revenue distribution model.
The conference (still) doesn’t have a new media rights deal, and agreeing to a new Grant of Rights before agreeing to a new media rights deal essentially just gives the conference one fewer thing to do in the future. If a school isn’t satisfied with the annual revenue (even with the performance-based payouts for Playoff money) in a new media rights deal, that school won’t be bound to the conference by the new Grant of Rights.
This all feels very performative to me. The conference’s schools are all fine being paid out the same on the standard, non-Playoff media rights deal…as long as that number isn’t too low. This isn’t anything new. Even the Playoff performance bonuses seem a bit hollow to me, since Pac-12 teams have played in the Playoff just twice (and not at all since the 2017 season).
As always, it comes down to cash. And if the Pac-12’s new media rights agreement can’t pay out at a level even close to the Big 12’s new deals with ESPN and Fox, the Grant of Rights agreed to this week won’t do much to keep schools in place.
