With the additions of Utah and Colorado the newly formed Pac-12 Conference just landed the richest contract in television with a 12-year deal worth $2.7 BILLION. Yes. BILLION. CORRECTION: NEW YORK TIMES IS REPORTING DEAL WORTH $3 BILLION.
Three people familiar with the negotiations say the Pac-10 has agreed to a 12-year television contract with Fox and ESPN that is the most valuable in college sports.
The people say the contract will be worth more than $225 million per year. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced. The contract was first reported by Sports Business Daily.
The previous richest deal for a conference is the $220 million a year that the Big Ten currently earns.
While most of the high-profile football and men's basketball games will be on channels owned by Fox or ESPN, the conference is interested in starting its own network.
Amateur sports eh? At $225 million per year that means each school in the Pac-12 will get roughly $18.75 million. Not too shabby for a conference that besides USC and most recently Oregon hasn't produced near the elite college football talent in the nation as say the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 conferences. This is a tremendous deal for the Pac-12 and sports fans around the nation. Hopefully we will no longer be subjected to shitty Big East football games on ESPN and instead will get to see some much more exciting West Coast brand of football.
Oh and before you ask NBC pays Notre Dame $15 million per season for their TV rights. It might be time for Notre Dame to either join a conference in football or renegotiate that contract. There is no reason schools like Vandy, Cal, and Northwestern among others should be getting paid more when they don't carry the brand name recognition that Notre Dame brings to the table.
With the tremendous amount of money being poured into television contracts for the rights to college football games in the major conferences is there any doubt that college football is the most popular sport in America with the NFL's lockout in full force?