What does the new Grant of Rights deal mean for Pac-12 programs? Exploring how equal revenue sharing will impact Pac-12 schools
The Pac-12 has been dealing issues as it prepares to lose the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins to the Big Ten in 2024. However, there has been a big step in the right direction for the future of the conference.
The Athletic's Stewart Mandel on Thursday reported that "the 10 remaining Pac-12 schools have agreed to equal sharing of media-rights revenue with performance-based distribution of College Football Playoff revenue." The 10 remaining schools will not sign the deal until the conference figures out their media deal after USC and UCLA exit. Columnist John Canzano explained the Grant of Rights includes sponsorship that is for the conference and left for individual schools to sell.
Let's take a closer look into their revenue-sharing model and discuss how it impacts the 10 remaining schools.
What does this mean for Pac-12 teams?
Equal revenue sharing is a massive win for the conference. Think about this outside of sports for a minute. If businesses in a similar sector are working together and pulling their revenues and dividing it equally, each company will work harder to make more money. It also helps the group as a whole as each company will have different revenues and make money together.
Now, replace companies with universities and the group to the Pac-12. This helps to go into their media rights negotiations as they are the only Power Five conference without a media deal in place. Each university now gets an even split of the pie with two major programs like UCLA and USC going.
However, they are getting the lowest of the five conferences in terms of revenue, and it will be interesting to see how they do going into their media rights. Losing two powerhouse programs is going to hurt the wallet, but there are still intriguing programs that are rumored to be leaving.
Arizona and Colorado are two programs that typically seem to be in the rumor mill for leaving the Pac-12. The conference is growing, however, as they announced total revenues of $581 million and distributions of $444 million. That distribution was a record high during the 2021-22 season so there is intrigue and value to the "Conference of Champions."
This revenue distribution is impactful as all 10 universities are going to be working in unison to get as much revenue as possible. This is a great chance to improve their rights and move forward as a conference.