With the departures of the Universities of Washington and Oregon back in 2023, the PAC-12 was essentially gutted. Washington State and Oregon State University served as its sole surviving members, making up the aptly nicknamed “PAC-2”.
However, 2024 came with big news of the conference’s revival. Gonzaga, Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State University all announced plans to join a new PAC-12 conference.
A growing conference needs a growing media presence, and they wasted no time getting it.
Early Monday morning the PAC-12 announced that they agreed to an extension of their partnership with CBS covering college football and basketball games. The extension carries through to the 2030-31 school year and, according to the conference’s release, “establishes CBS Sports as the primary long-term media partner for the new Pac-12”.
The extension includes the following major components:
- Annual football championship game on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+.
- Annual men’s basketball tournament championship game on CBS and Paramount+.
- A minimum of three regular-season football games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
- A minimum of three regular-season men’s basketball games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
- Football and men’s basketball games throughout the regular season on CBS Sports Network, with details to be announced at a later date.
CBS will not be the sole broadcaster of WSU athletics of course. Coverage of some remaining games will be negotiated and divided up between other media outlets in the lead up to the season.
WSU leadership, in their statement on Monday, was eager to express the significance of the deal.
“We’re leading the conference into a future defined by national visibility, competitive excellence, and innovation,” WSU president Elizabeth Cantwell said. “This is more than a media deal; It’s a statement of purpose and a springboard to what’s next.”
“Having CBS Sports as a media partner provides tremendous exposure for the conference and Washington State Athletics,” WSU Director of Athletics Anne McCoy said. “CBS Sports and Paramount+ will bring the stories of our student-athletes to millions of homes across the country.”
While WSU leadership has voiced their excitement about this deal, there are some missing details that have yet to be addressed. For example:
No Price Tag
Currently the value of the deal has not been reported. While the length of the deal is known (five years) and the positive impacts of the exposure has been clearly stated, the conference and WSU’s releases have skirted around revealing the price. This is not exactly bizarre, especially considering negotiations with other outlets for remaining games are ongoing. Releasing the price may, metaphorically, bleed the cards of the conference to other buyers, making it harder to strike a good deal.
Chances are that the price of the agreement will be announced after all negotiations and the deal are finalized.
No mention of smaller sports… or women’s sports
Considering that football and men’s basketball are the most popular college sports, it makes sense that this deal focuses on them. However, it makes no mention of any coverage for baseball, softball, track and field, swimming, rowing, soccer, volleyball, or even women’s basketball.
Again, considering the fact that other companies are still negotiating for remaining games and sports, this could be a move to strengthen the conference’s bargaining power. However, whether CBS will broadcast these other teams is still unknown and it raises the question of whether they are getting pushed aside by the growing presence of football and basketball in the media.
Coverage of some games “to be announced at a later date”
This, too, may be a reason for the absence of a price tag. As stated in the deal’s main components, the CBS Sports Network will broadcast some regular-season games, which they will announce later. How many they will broadcast is unknown, as well as what schools they will cover.
This also means that the number of WSU games that are covered is unknown. The same is true for all schools now in the PAC-12. How much real coverage they will receive is still in the air and therefore dampens how excited teams can really be.
Although this extension has numerous question marks latched to it, the agreement as a whole serves as an important step in the revival of the PAC-12. The media growth will help generate revenue for the schools, help them compete with other conferences and give fans a way to watch the sports and teams they love.
More information will likely be revealed as football season nears, leaving many fans still unsure how to feel about it all. But, for the moment, all anyone can do is wait.
