Arizona president predicts Pac-12 to remain together with new media deal
Arizona president Bobby Robbins met with reporters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and talked about the thing that has been on everyone’s mind since last summer — the fate of the Pac-12.
The league is still without a media rights deal, though John Canzano reported on Wednesday that Pac-12 members have finalized the conference’s Grant of Rights and negotiated revenue sharing. Robbins said that would be news to him, that Arizona hasn’t signed a Grant of Rights agreement, and won’t until it has seen a deal. “We have not seen a deal,” he said.
Robbins even took a shot at the report during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show: “I’m looking forward to hearing from my own commissioner.”
On Capitol Hill, Robbins also was asked directly if Arizona was interested in moving conferences.
“Depends on what our financial deal is,” he said. “We’re not going to get a Big Ten deal. We’re not gonna get an SEC deal. But if we finish third in this sweepstakes, I’ve never thought that winning the bronze medal was a great aspirational goal. But if we win a bronze medal, I think we’d all declare victory.”
Robbins said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the deal. But he did say what seems to be the prevailing belief: if the numbers are right, the league stays together even after USC and UCLA depart for the Big Ten.
“My prediction is that we’re all going to stay together as a Pac-12,” he said. There’s 10 of us right now. I’m hopeful that the deal is going to be good enough to keep us together. I think that’s the best thing for our students and alumni. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Robbins also said he hasn’t “recently” spoken to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, but noted the new league leader as aggressive.
Yormark has made it known since last summer he’d like to continue expanding the Big 12 to include the Pacific timezone, and he has repeatedly been linked to the so-called Four Corners in the Pac-12 — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah.
There has been plenty of noise about CU of late, but nothing concrete. Reports on Tuesday suggested UConn had momentum as a potential all-sports addition to the Big 12, with Gonzaga also mentioned because of its basketball prowess.
If the Big 12 added one of them, and then only looked to take one more, would CU be the team? What about Arizona, which has as well-respected a basketball program as there is in the country?
Robbins was asked if Arizona would prefer to stay in the same league as Arizona State. He remarked that he has the autonomy to move without ASU, but that’s not necessarily something he’d actively choose to do.
“We don’t have to do the same thing. But President Crow and I are very, very tight,” he said. “I think it’d be unlikely that we’d be split up. Right now with 10 schools, we control a very nice 20% of solidarity.”