The Big 12, which has long been focused on expanding with at least two -- if not all four -- of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, is paying its members nearly $32 million annually through its new media rights agreement with ESPN and Fox.
Annual payouts in the Big Ten are even more lucrative at $60 million per school annually through an agreement with CBS, Fox and NBC. However, Oregon and Washington will only receive 50% of the annual share ($30 million with yearly $1 million escalators) after changing conferences, according to multiple reports.
In TWO YEARS they will GROSS what the Big XII is paying their four former brethren TODAY. Now deduct travel costs. For the Four Corners schools are those going to be more? They are now in a conference with members in Ohio, Florida and West Virginia. They will have to play UCF and Cincy and WVU sometimes, but they have also got three games apiece with each other, plus a “bus trip” (UA’s Bobby Robbins’ term) to Lubbock, a similar overnight for Utah to Provo; they’ve got four other destinations in Texas, one in Oklahoma,, two in Kansas and one in Iowa. There’s a whole slew of new neighbors in the new neighborhood, and they don’t have to go to the Canadian border one-four times a year.
But let’s give O and W the benefit of the uncertain and say yes, the five old PAC members will absorb a little, somewhat, more travel costs that will reduce their net take in the Big XII. Now what about the travel costs for the two newest members of the B1G? They still have to schlepp down to SoCal but without the shorter hops to the Bay, and now to Michigan, two schools, Indiana two, Illinois two, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland!
It will be years before Oregon and Washington catch up and years more until they exceed in the B1G what Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado are netting in the Big XII. Make it make sense.
