Realignment update

From OSU Board

OSU and WSU hired Oliver Luck as a consultant. The schools would prefer to rebuild the Pac-2 or Pac-4, even if it sounds wildly ambitious. It’s a complex plan, but as one campus source told me: “I will fight to the bloody end.”

Meanwhile, Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff met with his executive team on Thursday and came away with some clarity on the conference’s assets.

• All future NCAA Tournament payouts belong to the conference, not the schools that earned them. Those future payments total more than $50 million to be paid over the next six years. That money stays with any remaining conference members. Is that just OSU/WSU? Or also Stanford/Cal? Two schools? Or four? That’s to be determined, but Kliavkoff told me on Friday: “I see no reason why they would share those with any incoming schools.”

• The Pac-12 still owes Comcast $60 million in overpayments from the Larry Scott-era. The conference’s emergency bank account contained approximately $40 million. That fund will be utilized to help pay that debt, per Kliavkoff. Any balance owed to Comcast will be settled evenly by each of the 12 schools before members depart.

• College Football Playoff distributions in the next two years are supposed to be divided equally among all Power 5 conference members. Every Power 5 school — not the conferencs — gets one share.

That includes Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal. It explains why Beavers’ AD Scott Barnes told me the ideal number of members for a rebuilt Pac-2 or Pac-4 is eight schools.

The Big 12 Conference added four “Group of 5” schools and all four were granted “Power 5” playoff shares. The Pac-4 could legally argue that a reconstituted Pac-8 should be given the same treatment. That argument falls apart if there’s a full-blown merger with the Mountain West or if OSU and WSU decide to abandon the Pac-12 and join the MWC.

• Another Pac-12 asset includes “equivalency” payments due to the conference from the Rose Bowl settlement. The $50 million payout this season will be split evenly among the 12 conference schools. There is another $100 million combined due to the Pac-12 members in 2024 and 2025.

Insiders expect there could be a legal fight over whether the $100 million belongs to the remaining two/four members or if those payments should be divided among the 12 current schools. Stay tuned on that front.

Meanwhile, Nevarez casts an interesting figure. She’s in her first season as the Mountain West commissioner and previously worked for the Pac-12 as a deputy commissioner. And Luck is a vital character in this unfolding drama, too.

Some fans view simply joining the MWC as the safer, less complicated option. That’s certainly a fall-back path available to WSU and OSU. But it looks and sounds to me like the Cougars and Beavers have a far more ambitious plan in mind.

If Stanford and Cal stick around, a Pac-4 rebuild is on the menu. If those schools leave for the ACC, OSU & WSU still prefer to explore playing under the “Pac-whatever“ flag. There you have it!