From Power Five to Legal Puzzle: How the Pac-12 Collapsed and What Its Rebuild Teaches Sports Lawyers

For a century, the Pac-12 was a West Coast anchor of college athletics. The “Pac-12 After Dark” produced some of the most iconic games. Its effective dissolution began in 2023, when a flurry of departures left only Oregon State and Washington State (“OSU/WSU”) as the remaining teams in a once-major conference. What followed was a year of injunctions, settlements, and stopgap governance, a lesson in how bylaws, forum selection, and interim remedies shape the demise (and possible rebirth) of a league.¹ 

TV Rights and the Pac-12 Network 

The Pac-12 began to falter in the early 2020s when the Pac-12 Network, ideally a comparable cash cow to the Big Ten Network and SEC Network, failed to meet expectations. While the Pac-12 Network had lofty goals, its distribution deal limited its reach to roughly 12.4 million subscribers in 2023 compared to 46.4 million for the SEC network.² Instead of bringing in an established network partner, such as the Big Ten with Fox or the SEC with ESPN, the 12 universities decided to retain full ownership of the operation.  

The Pac-12 Network receives 14 cents per subscriber per month to carry the channel, whereas the SEC Network receives $0.97, and the Big Ten Network receives $0.77.³ 

Leadership Failures 

The Pac-12 Athletic Director at the time, Larry Scott, is partly to blame for the conference’s troubles. In 2019-20, Scott was the highest-paid conference commissioner at $5.4 million. Additionally, Scott moved the Pac-12’s headquarters from Walnut Creek, California, to downtown San Francisco. A reporter found that the office in San Francisco was $92 million for 11 years.⁴ 

Beyond the optics of compensation and office costs, years of distribution mistakes left Pac-12 Networks structurally weaker than peer channels. Industry reports show the network’s average per-subscriber fee fell from about $0.30 in 2012 at launch to roughly $0.11 by 2017, while the Big Ten Network’s average fee rose over the same span.⁵ 

By 2023, the conference was negotiating from a diminished position. According to the Associated Press, the best concrete proposal on the table resembled Major League Soccer’s $23-25 million-per-school range, which is well below the SEC and Big Ten’s range.⁶ 

How the Dominoes Fell 

Once USC and UCLA announced moves to the Big Ten (2022), the August 2023 cascade finished the job: Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah to the Big 12; and, soon after, Stanford and Cal Berkeley to the ACC.⁷ 

The Board-Control Fight 

With ten schools exiting the Pac-12, OSU/WSU sued in Whitman County, Washington State, to clarify Pac-12 governance.⁸ On November 14, 2023, the trial court granted a preliminary injunction holding that only OSU/WSU remained on the Board under the Pac-12’s bylaws.⁹ After a brief stay, the Washington Supreme Court declined review on December 15, 2023, effectively restoring OSU/WSU’s control while the merits proceeded.¹⁰  

Interim Governance and the Settlement  

However, granting OSU/WSU control didn’t end the conflict. To avoid paralyzing unanimity rules and end emergency motion practice, the parties struck a mediated deal in 2024-25 governing distributions and operations.¹¹ According to ESPN, each departing school agreed to forgo $5 million from 2023-24 conference revenue and make a $1.5 million supplemental payment. OSU/WSU, as the continuing members, assumed management of future liabilities and winding-down tasks.¹² 

Bridging Seasons: Scheduling and Olympic-Sport Homes 

To field viable schedules, OSU/WSU executed a 2024 football scheduling alliance with the Mountain West division. OSU/WSU played six teams apiece and paid the Mountain West approximately $14 million for the season-long arrangement.¹³ Importantly, NCAA rules allow a conference to operate with as few as two members for up to two years, which OSU/WSU used to stabilize the Pac-12’s legal and media posture.¹⁴ Additionally, outside of football, OSU/WSU accepted two-year affiliate memberships in the West Coast Conference (‘WCC”) for non-football sports to ensure they had a pathway to the NCAA championships. 

Summary 

In the end, the Pac-12’s story shows how business realities and legal architecture collide. A lacking media model and costly leadership choices narrowed the league’s options, and once the marquee brands left (USC & UCLA), the bylaws and a swift injunction determined who held the keys. From there, negotiated givebacks, a one-year football bridge with the Mountain West, and temporary homes for Olympic Sports kept competition alive while the conference reestablished itself.  

For lawyers, the takeaway is straightforward: build bylaws that anticipate exits and maintain transparent media finances. Because realignment pressure will return, and the conference’s best prepared on paper will be the ones who survive and thrive.  

Sources

[1] Ralph D. Russo, Judge Gives Oregon State, Washington State Control of Pac-12 and Assets; Outgoing Schools Appeal, AP News (Nov. 15, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/conference-realignment-pac12-c4c791dc1f54d0786e51730a2b90c6f3.

[2] Craig Meyer, What happened to the Pac-12? Why conference now only has Oregon State, Washington State, but others pending, USA TODAY (Sept. 14, 2024),  https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/pac12/2024/09/14/pac-12-conference-realignment-oregon-state-washington-state-big-ten-expansion-mountain-west/75182021007/. 

[3] Brent Schrotenboer, Pac-12 Networks to go dark Sunday night after 12-year run, USA TODAY June 30, 2024), (https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2024/06/30/pac-12-networks-tv-dark-oregon-state-washington-state/74248264007/. 

[4] John Canzano, Canzano: Thanks for nothing, Larry Scott, Bald Faced Truth (May 23, 2023), https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-thanks-for-nothing-larry. 

[5] Report Finds Big Drop in Pac-12 Networks Subscriber Fee Since ’12, Sports Business Journal (Apr. 11, 2018), https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/04/12/Media/Pac-12-Net/?utm.  

[6] Joe Reedy, Pac-12’s downfall came after it could not adjust to changing media landscape, AP NEWS (Aug. 7, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/pac-12-conference-realignment-big-ten-big-12-17dc50f7b479fe19b0599dd4b690bac4?utm.

[7] Ralph D. Russo, Big ten grabs Oregon, Washington; Big 12 completes Pac-12 raid with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, AP NEWS (Aug. 5, 2023) https://apnews.com/article/pac12-big-ten-big12-conference-realignment-washington-oregon-f9f066d554b54ab600f798d91193aee4?utm. 

[8] Washington State University v. The Pac-12 Conference, No. 23-2-00273-38, 2023 WL 5955327 (Wash.Super. Sep. 11, 2023),  chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.courts.wa.gov/content/publicUpload.   

[9], [10] Kyle Bonagura, Ruling Grants Oregon State, Washington State Full Control of Pac-12, ESPN (Nov. 14, 2023), https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38899331/judge-ruling-grants-oregon-state-washington-state-full-control-pac-12-board. 

[11], [12] Associated Press, Washington State, Oregon State settle with schools exiting Pac-12, (Mar. 25, 2024), https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/39808513/washington-state-oregon-state-settle-schools-exiting-pac-12.  

[13], [14] Ralph D. Russo, Oregon State, Washington State, Mountain West Agree to 6-GameFootball Scheduling Arrangement in ’24, (Dec. 1, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/conference-realignment-0665abd053444cd3f5126630f4b6de94.