Pac-12 collapse: WSU’s Schulz suggests Fox’s strategy (to block Apple) fueled Big Ten’s raid of Washington, Oregon

Did Arizona’s application to the Big 12 play a role in the Pac-12’s demise?

According to a university president familiar with the media rights negotiations, one of the Pac-12’s longtime media partners had strategic reasons for taking the step that decimated the conference.

Kirk Schulz, chair of the Pac-12 board of directors at Washington State, suggested late last week that Fox may have enticed Washington and Oregon to join the Big Ten in order to prevent the Pac-12 from signing an agreement with Apple.

“We’ve got just a couple networks that are making the real decisions about who goes where based on the dollars they want to put into it,” Schulz explained in a video posted to the university’s YouTube channel.

“To be honest, if I were Fox and ESPN, I’m not sure I want Apple in the marketplace.” If I can afford it, I don’t want a competitor with such deep pockets.”

Pac-12 presidents were expected to sign a rights-grant agreement with Apple, which would have kept the conference together. But, just minutes before their crucial Aug. 4 meeting, Washington and Oregon announced their intentions to join the Big Ten.

The tectonic shift prompted Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State to seek refuge in the Big 12, resulting in the conference’s demise.

Fox owns the Big Ten’s media rights and is responsible for the $375 million (approximately) that Washington and Oregon will receive over the conference’s six-year media contract (2025-2030).

Fox has not made a significant push into the streaming market, instead focusing on delivering sports content through its linear networks. Meanwhile, Apple has distribution agreements with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, and was attempting to break into the college football space through a Pac-12 agreement.

“Was it a calculated strategic move on their part to say, ‘If we kill the Apple deal, that gives us five or six years without them in college football?'” Schulz stated.

“People can say, ‘Kirk, put on a tin-foil hat; that’s kind of like (a) conspiracy theory.'” On the other hand, I can see making a business decision — I’m not talking about the value of the schools or anything like that — that could be seen as more strategic in order to have a market corner.”

The theory that Fox sought to obstruct Apple has gained traction across the Pac-12 and support in the broader sports media space. However, Schulz is the first Pac-12 executive to address the issue publicly.

Schulz acknowledged that the Cougars were “standing in line like everybody else to collect that check” from media companies during a wide-ranging discussion with former journalist Enrique Cerna, a member of WSU’s board of regents. He was, however, concerned about the role Fox and ESPN play in conference realignment.

(You can read the entire interview here.)

“The more competition that is removed from the marketplace, the easier it becomes for some of those funders to really, really call the shots,” he said.

“We’re really down to two dominant players who are determining what happens with expansion.” I don’t mean that any of them is going to call a commissioner and say, ‘Go get these two schools.’ I’m not sure if this is happening.

“However, the commissioner calls them and says, ‘We’d like to add X and Y,’ and (the networks) get to decide, ‘Do I give a pro-rata amount for that?'” Or should I say something like, ‘Sorry, we’re not going to give you any money.’ That, I believe, is the golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules. And that is where we are at the moment.”

(Fox executives could not be reached for comment.)

However, Washington and Oregon required more than money to join the Big Ten. They also needed approval from the conference’s Presidents and Chancellors Council.

That same group approved invitations for USC and UCLA in June 2022, causing the Pac-12 to face an existential crisis. For the majority of the past 13 months, Big Ten presidents appeared unwilling to take the final step — membership offers to Pacific Northwest powerhouses — that would lead to the Pac-12’s demise.

Aside from Fox’s willingness to fund the expansion, what changed in early August?

According to a source, Arizona’s application for Big 12 membership was crucial in the process.

The Wildcats weren’t the only ones looking for a lifeboat; Utah and ASU would follow them into the Big 12’s arms (and Colorado, of course, had already jumped). However, in order to secure a home in the event that the Pac-12 folded, Arizona formally applied for membership in the Big 12 in the middle of the week — before Oregon and Washington rejected the Pac-12 grant-of-rights agreement on that fateful Friday morning.

According to the source, the Big Ten was made aware of Arizona’s application to the Big 12.

“So (Big Ten commissioner) Tony Petitti tells his presidents, ‘We aren’t the ones,'” according to the source. “They felt like they weren’t the ones to fire the kill shot.”

According to the source, this prompted the Big Ten presidents to approve membership for Washington and Oregon without hesitation — and with Fox’s cash as a carrot.

According to Yahoo, Arizona’s application was approved by the Big 12 on Thursday evening, despite the fact that president Robert Robbins awoke Friday morning ready to sign the Pac-12’s grant-of-rights agreement with ASU and Utah.

But by then, the Big Ten had dropped its hammer.