According to multiple reports, the next Big Ten media rights deal will include Big Ten programming on FOX, CBS, and NBC. It will not see football games played on ESPN. Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand was first to report that ESPN had pulled out of negotiations for the league’s next deal. According to Ourand, the Worldwide Leader turned down a bid for $380 million a year over seven years—a package that included linear-only games and no direct-to-consumer rights.

That means that Big Ten football and men’s basketball games won’t be carried on ESPN for the first time in four decades.

That also—presumably—means good things for the Pac-12, which can provide evening kickoff slots to an ESPN Saturday that just lost some programming and now has a bit more money to spent.

John Canzano reported on Tuesday that league athletic directors met the news of ESPN’s Big Ten balk with optimism, quoting one AD as saying the news contributes to “further stability” for the non-Los Angeles schools in the Pac-12.

From Canzano’s report:

Word ripped across the Pac-12 footprint on Tuesday morning. It was greeted with enthusiasm and optimism. Conference athletic directors were already tuned in, aware that ESPN is the most likely Tier 1 bidder for the Pac-12’s rights. But the fear was that the network might overspend to continue its relationship with the Big Ten.

“This is where the real work begins,” said one Pac-12 Conference AD.

“Our strategy is sound,” added another.

The Big Ten’s next media deal begins with the 2023-24 school year. The Pac-12 is next to market after that, and commissioner George Kliavkoff spent the last month in formal negotiations with the league’s current media partners—ESPN and FOX—over that next deal. They had an exclusive 30-day window within which to conduct formal negotiations, but that window closed on Aug. 4 without any formal announcement of a deal.

Instead, at Pac-12 Media Day, Kliavkoff offered a bit of hope and a loose timeline for when he expects answers.

“With the value of premium college sports rights continuing to rise, multiple interested media partners and limited opportunities, particularly in the west, we are confident in the long-term value of our rights,” he said. “To set expectations, this process will accelerate after the Big Ten deals are concluded and will likely take months to complete. Even with the loss of our two L.A. schools, we still believe that after the current cycle of media rights deals, we will be very well positioned among the Power Five from a revenue-per-school standpoint.”

Ourand reported that NBC and CBS will each be paying upwards of $300 million a year to get in on the Big Ten’s media deal. Included in that deal for NBC, per Ourand, is the expectation that an undetermined number of Big Ten games will be carried on the network’s streaming service, Peacock.

ESPN is expected to be the primary partner for the Pac-12 on its next deal. Asked how any such deal might be structured, Kliavkoff said he expects a digital partner to be in play.

“Without talking about individual potential partners, I would say it’s highly likely that we will end up with a big digital partner for some of our rights and that our rights will be distributed in a way that’s unique, different and new.”