Cal, other departing Pac-12 schools settle with Oregon State, Washington State for $255 million
The California Golden Bears will have to forego a significant amount of their Pac-12 revenue payout.
Oregon State and Washington State have announced an agreement in principle with Cal and the 9 other departing Pac-12 schools on revenue distribution for the 2023-24 academic year, bringing an end to a legal battle triggered by conference realignment.
John Canzano reports that it’ll be a $255 million war chest for the two programs.
Oregon State and Washington State announced that they have reached a settlement with the 10 departing schools. The financial piece of the agreement gives the two schools protection against liabilities involving ongoing lawsuits, $190 million in future conference revenue and $65 million from the departing schools that will be spread out over the next two years.
The total war chest: $255 million.
That amounts to about $6.5 million per departing school. Pac-12 members received about $36 million per school last financial year.
So if those numbers stay the same, ultimately Cal will be foregoing around 20% of their financial payout for 2023-24 to pay back to Oregon State and Washington State.
Rough. Canzano mentioned there were two holdouts against this settlement for financial reasons. There has been speculation that Cal is one of the programs, but there is no confirmation.
Last week, the state Supreme Court of Washington declined to review a lower court's decision, granting Oregon State and Washington State control of the Pac-12 and its assets. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the departing members will forfeit a portion of distributions for the current school year and ensure coverage of specific portions of potential future liabilities.
The settlement, guided by an agreement in principle, marks a resolution that allows the Pac-12's future to be determined by the schools staying in the conference rather than those departing. Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy and Washington State President Kirk Schulz expressed optimism about the future for their universities, student-athletes, the Pac-12 Conference, and millions of fans in a joint statement.
The departing schools will forfeit some distributions for the ongoing academic year, and details about the settlement's fine print will be worked out in the coming days.
Here is a snippet of the statement from the 10 departing members.
“This agreement allows OSU and WSU to maintain control of the hundreds of millions of dollars coming into the conference in future years, as we have always maintained they would, while calling for the vast majority of funds earned in 2023-24 to be distributed equally among the 12 members,”
Oregon State and Washington State intend to keep the conference alive and rebuild, retaining control of the conference's assets and all future revenues. The agreement ensures that the two remaining schools maintain control over the incoming funds while calling for the equitable distribution of the majority of funds earned in the 2023-24 academic year among all 12 members.
With the settlement in place, Oregon State and Washington State plan to operate as a two-team conference, as allowed by NCAA rules for two years, before rebuilding. They have secured a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West for football next season and are working on an affiliation deal with the West Coast Conference for basketball and other Olympic sports for two years.
Cal has also scheduled Oregon State for a home and home in 2024 and 2025.
The two schools stand to receive tens of millions in revenue over the next two years from existing agreements with the College Football Playoff and the Rose Bowl.
However, potential liabilities loom, as the Pac-12 is named in an antitrust lawsuit that could result in significant damages.
Good for Oregon State and Washington State for getting what they need to stay afloat. Hopefully, they find a new home. Perhaps after everything shakes out, they can be stewards of a reconstituted Pac in the coming years?
It's bullshit that we and furd are on the hook for this. SC and UCLA should pay most, and the other six the balance.
That’s awesome, they deserve the money. I wish Cal and Furd would’ve stayed with them to be the Pac4, and then expanded back to 8 or 10 or 12 teams in future years. Of course the big question is what kind of TV money could they have gotten down the road?