Pac-12 schools rejected a media rights deal with ESPN last fall that offered more revenue than the proposed 2023 deal with Apple, according to a conference insider. On Friday, John Canzano shared the details of the conference’s fatal misstep in negotiating with ESPN.

According to Canzano, ESPN offered the conference a media rights deal in 2022 of $30 million in revenue per school for the 10 universities that were on board to remain for 2024 and beyond. Canzano’s source said that Pac-12 schools instructed commissioner George Kliavkoff to tell the network that they wanted $50 million per school. ESPN reportedly had a 1-word response: “Goodbye.”

Last week, The Athletic reported that Apple offered the Pac-12 a media rights deal with a base rate of $23 million per school. A subsequent offer raised that number to $25 million. The universities would have been pushing their fans to buy $100 Apple subscriptions, and the teams would not have received linear TV exposure.

The rejection of the Apple streaming deal has left the Pac-12 with 4 remaining members for 2024 after Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Washington and Utah left for other conferences.