Report: Cal, Stanford Could Land with Big 12 Under New Scenario If ACC Talks Fail

The Big 12 is attempting to make a late play for California and Stanford as the two schools continue to negotiate a potential move to the ACC.

Per Michael Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Big 12 "has surfaced" as a potential landing spot for Cal and Stanford which would also open up the possibility for the other remaining Pac-12 schools (Oregon State and Washington State) to join the conference.

Amid a wave of recent Pac-12 defections, the future of the conference is very much uncertain. USC and UCLA announced last year they would be joining the Big Ten starting in 2024.

In the span of eight days from July 27 to Aug. 4, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah all announced they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12 in 2024. The incoming schools will help offset the loss of Oklahoma and Texas, who are going to the SEC starting next year.

This has left the four remaining Pac-12 schools to figure out what the next step is going to be. One of the main issues for the conference is its media rights deals. The current deals with ESPN and Fox are set to expire after the 2023-24 athletic season.

Per Oregon athletic insider John Canzano, the Pac-12 rejected an offer from ESPN that would have paid each school $30 million, but the conference wanted $50 million and the network walked away.

The ACC has emerged as a potential landing spot for Cal and Stanford, especially since the conference is trying to keep Florida State happy.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported earlier this week the ACC was going to hold a series of meetings to "further vet and discuss different financial models that would come with the additions" of Cal, Stanford and SMU.

Florida State president Rick McCullough said at a board of trustees meeting earlier this month the school will have to consider leaving the conference unless there is "radical change to the revenue distribution."

The ACC signed a 20-year media rights deal with ESPN in 2016 that runs through the 2035-36 academic year. Noah Monroe of the Daily Tar Heel, citing 2019 tax returns, noted each school in the conference was making $23.3 million in the deal.

By comparison, according to Monroe, schools in the Big Ten and SEC will start making $67 and $51 million, respectively, when their new TV deals begin. The Big Ten's new media rights deal begins in 2023; the SEC's starts in 2024.

Per Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press, ESPN's deal with the ACC requires it to "increase its total annual payout to the conference to cover an equal annual share for each new member" if the conference expands.

Cal is one of the charter members of the conference when it launched as the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915. Stanford joined three years later.