Arizona president likened potential Apple deal to 'selling candy bars for Little League'
Arizona President Robert Robbins met with the media Monday to discuss Friday’s turn of events. When the dust settled, the Wildcats had finalized a move to the Big 12 alongside Arizona State and Utah.
As for when things went south for the Pac-12, Robbins said teams were showing up and prepared to sign over the grant of rights to the Pac-12. Then, the group was informed by one of the Oregon/Washington presidents about 10 minutes before signing that they were “taking our talents to the Big Ten.”
Arizona president Robert Robbins says UA and other Pac-9 schools were “expecting Friday morning to show up together and sign in blood our Grant of Rights over to the Pac-12 Conference.”
Then a president from either Washington or Oregon notified him about their move to Big 10. pic.twitter.com/UvsFoIFiWu
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) August 7, 2023
As for the potential media rights package with Apple, Robbins equated it as “selling candy bars for Little League” or Girl Scout cookies. Whether or not that’s a true representation, the reported details of an Apple package included some out-of-the-box aspects as compared to a normal media rights deal.
University of Arizona president Dr. Robert C. Robbins on the PAC-12 Apple subscription offer. “It’s going to be like selling candy bars for little league or Girl Scout cookies” Video property of our Scripps affiliate KNXV – ABC 15. pic.twitter.com/6DE4EzlzmT
— Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) August 7, 2023
At the end of the day, everything might work out just fine for Arizona after landing in the Big 12. Unfortunately, the string of realignment moves comes at the cost of the Pac-12 as we know it.