Report: Colorado 'in discussions' about leaving Pac-12 for Big 12

Colorado, long rumored to be flirting with a return to the Big 12, is in discussions to leave the Pac-12 and once again play in the Big 12, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Colorado joined the Pac-12 in 2011.

The school recently completed a board meeting to discuss the move, according to Thamel, and could meet again on Thursday to keep discussing. Thamel added that a Big 12 meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night for league presidents and expansion is slated to be a topic.

A potential move out of the Pac-12 and back into the Big 12 for Colorado comes as the Pac-12 continues to hammer out a new media deal.

Thamel added that “there’s no agenda posted yet. But the meeting tomorrow at Colorado is called a ‘Special Board Meeting’ and was scheduled essentially as today’s ‘athletics operations’ executive session board meeting ended.”

A week ago, Colorado’s chancellor tried to quash speculation around this move

As the Pac-12 continues to work through its media rights deal, there’s been no shortage of conference realignment rumors. Colorado has found itself at the center of it all, mostly connected to the Big 12.

Wednesday, CU’s chancellor appeared to shut that down.

“[CU’s] goal is to stay within the Pac-12 and have a media deal coming up shortly,” Phil DiStefano told the Denver Post’s Sean Keeler. “That’s our goal. And I believe the presidents and chancellors of the Pac-12 are together on that.”

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DiStefano’s comments came two days before the Pac-12 converges on Las Vegas for the league’s media day — a day that will not include coach Deion Sanders due to a follow-up surgery. The hope was the conference would have an update of some kind on its upcoming media rights deal, but multiple reports indicate that’s not likely to happen.

DiStefano knows how that plays into conference realignment conversation even though he’s not on social media. He’s hoping to get some guidance on where things stand this week.

“I think [the speculation has happened] because there’s not a deal at this point,” DiStefano said. “There’s a lot of talk about [Big 12] expansion. But … I don’t read social media very much so I don’t know what people are saying, but I hope that we’ll have some direction [Thursday] in our meeting.”

The Pac-12 is the only conference that doesn’t have a media rights deal in place for 2024 and beyond. That’s a big reason for the rumors about teams possibly leaving the league, and it’s possibly a reason San Diego State will wind up staying in the Mountain West.

Colorado has been one of the teams mentioned most in realignment rumors and reportedly held “substantive talks” with the Big 12. Other Pac-12 teams to come up in connection with the Big 12 include the Arizona, Arizona State and Utah as commissioner Brett Yormark looks to go West.