Washington president Ana Mari Cauce called the decision to exit the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten a “bittersweet moment” but, during a press conference on Saturday that also featured UW athletic director Jen Cohen, Cauce said the instability of the Pac-12 and the media rights deal that was presented gave UW only one real option.

“We’re proud of our rich history with the Pac-12, and for more than a year, all of us worked really, really hard to find a viable path forward that would keep us together,” Cauce said. “In the end, we had to do what is right. It is my responsibility to do what is right for our university and our student-athletes and an athletic program that is truly special.”

Stability was a major talking point.

Of course, the move doesn’t happen if the Pac-12 would have been able to present a suitable media rights deal. There was buzz early Friday morning that a last-ditch effort to keep the league together was underway, but that fell apart quickly as UW and Oregon made moves to the Big Ten while Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah jumped to the Big 12.

Oregon’s president said Friday the school expects to average $50 million per year just from direct media revenue over the next 10 years. Dave Mahler, from 93.3 KJR, reported on Saturday that UW’s reduced share for the next six years in the Big Ten will average out to roughly $32.5 million in media revenue.

Cohen said UW is “really confident” in the resources “that will be provided for us” both in the short- and long-term. She said UW was not disclosing the financial details of the move but would in “the very near future.”

Both schools are banking on a huge windfall when the Big Ten negotiates its next media deal and they become fully-vested members.

But even at a reduced share in the Big Ten, UW stands to earn more from media revenue than in the hypothetical Pac-9 that met Friday morning.

Numbers on the Pac-12’s streaming deal with Apple were said to be in the low $20 million range.

“In the end, we did not have a deal that we thought was viable in terms of securing our stability and our future,” Cauce said.

“We looked at the deal that we had — the only deal that we had — and it was clear that it was not giving us what we thought. It was not the deal that we had been discussing just days before, and it was not going to secure (the conference). When you have a deal where people are saying one of the best aspects of it is that you can get out of it in two years, that tells you a lot. We really needed to have the stability for our players, for our coaches, for our teams.”

Cauce stressed that the dollar amount wasn’t her only hang-up with the Pac-12 deal. Exposure was important, and she felt UW would be harmed by staying in the Pac-12.

Some reports suggested there was no linear TV partner in the deal presented to Pac-12 members. Though she didn’t explicitly outline the degree to which linear was or wasn’t involved, it was clear linear visibility was a sticking point for UW’s president.

“This was about national visibility for our players, being on linear TV so that they could be seen, so that they could have the national exposure,” Cauce said. “It was about stability. It was about a contract that didn’t have a ‘two years and you can all split up’ (clause). It was about having a future that we could count on and build towards. It wasn’t just dollars and cents.”

That word again: stability.

The Pac-12, UW felt, couldn’t provide it. The Huskies believe their new home can.