Oregon and Washington are finalizing a deal to join the Big Ten, sources told ESPN, a move that continues to shrink the Pac-12 and leaves that conference’s future in dire straits.
The schools are expected to formally apply for membership Friday, sources said, and a Big Ten vote is expected to take place this evening, according to sources.
The Big Ten vote is expected to be unanimous for the two schools to join in 2024, sources said, despite initial pushback from schools in the league on admitting them.
The finances of the move are not immediately clear, but both Oregon and Washington will receive only a partial share of the conference allotment through the length of its upcoming television deal, which goes through the 2029-30 school year.
The move would push the Big Ten to 18 schools. Starting in 2024, that will include a western division of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. None of those schools is required to pay an exit fee due to the Pac-12’s expiring television contract.
The departures put Oregon and Washington’s former conference, the century-old Pac-12, in limbo. The Arizona Wildcats have applied to and been admitted to the Big 12, ESPN sources said, although that deal has yet to be finalized. And conversations between the Big 12 and Utah and Arizona State heated up Friday, sources said.
With the Pac-12’s television deal set to expire after the 2023-24 school year, the conference is in on life support. The departure of the Colorado Buffaloes last week, the loss of Oregon and Washington, and the expected departure of Arizona leaves the league gutted.
The only certainties moving forward are California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State. The Pac-12 cannot just add Mountain West programs to the league in 2024, as there is a steep price to pay, $32 million exit fee per Mountain West school to leave before the start of the 2025 football season.
Oregon’s and Washington’s decisions to go to the Big Ten will not be a financial windfall in the short term. The deal is expected to grow each year, but it is still only in the neighborhood of a half-share of what the other 16 teams in the conference are expected to receive. A source familiar with the situation said the payouts would grow every year and be competitive with, and perhaps surpass, the payouts of leagues such as the Big 12 and ACC.
That Big Ten full-share number is fluid, so schools do not have clarity on it yet. That is because the Big Ten longform television contract is not complete, along with variables like College Football Playoff money and NCAA tournament units, but a fair projection is nearly $70 million annually.
The numbers from the Big Ten were being compared with the ambiguity of the numbers the Pac-12 collected in its stream-heavy deal from Apple, which included subscription incentives that needed to be reached for the schools to make big money.
The Big Ten and Washington and Oregon went back to the table and into deep discussions Friday morning, sources said, after the Pac-12 presidents’ call ended quickly because of a lack of stability moving forward with the primary streaming deal.
The move makes the Big Ten the first major conference to push to 18 teams and will further the notion of a push toward superconferences. The SEC will make its debut as a 16-team conference with the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners in 2024, the same year the Big Ten will roll out its West Coast additions. The Big 12 is officially up to 13, and that number could increase soon.
Oregon and Washington represent strong and storied football additions for the Big Ten, as they have taken part in the College Football Playoff. They will join the Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan State Spartans, and Michigan Wolverines as CFP teams in that league.
