The Pac-12 is in no rush to finalize its next media rights deal. League commissioner George Kliavkoff met with reporters ahead of the Pac-12 Championship Game on Thursday and revealed he does not expect any finality on the media rights front before the start of 2023.

Kliavkoff also said that once a media deal is reached, he doesn’t “anticipate any issues” with the league’s current remaining membership (sans USC and UCLA) signing a new grant-of-rights agreement.

The Pac-12 opened negotiations for its next media rights deal back in July, shortly after news broke that UCLA and USC were departing the league and joining the Big Ten in 2024.

Since then, the Big Ten and Big 12 have both announced their next media rights deals, agreements that will carry into the 2030s. The ACC and SEC are also on or moving to agreements that will extend into the 2030s as well. Depending on how the Pac-12 structures its next deal, it could even return to market a second time before some of its peers.

Throughout the process, Kliavkoff has outwardly expressed confidence the league will be stable and attractive even after the two L.A. schools exit.

“We’re going to do a media rights deal here in the near future which will close the gap between us and the Big Ten and the SEC,” Kliavkoff said last month during basketball media days. “That’s a first step (in strengthening the league). Eventually, we’ll catch those guys. It will take a couple of steps, but we’re going to take a step toward closing that gap. Then we’re going to be looking at expansion. We’re going to be looking at schools that make sense for us.”

You can see Kliavkoff’s full question-and-answer session with league media below: