College football insiders: Pac-12 meeting Friday morning to sign Grant of Rights for new media deal

A positive update regarding conference realignment and the Pac-12 hasn’t come in some time. However, one does seem as though it’s finally coming down the pipe for the league.

Per Ross Dellenger at Yahoo Sports, the Pac-12 will meet together this morning to sign the conference’s grant of rights. With all presidents expected to be in attendance, this deal, alongside Apple, could bring any further movement to a halt.

“Multiples sources tell Dan Wetzel and me that the tides are turning. The Pac-12 meeting this morning to sign a Grant of Rights, which Yahoo Sports reported last night, remains on schedule. The expectation is all presidents will show,” wrote Dellenger on Twitter.

With the Pac-12 having faced a full-on collapse, their focus, per Dellenger, is to hold firm with their nine teams. If they can’t, the breakdown of the league will continue. If they can, especially with these signatures, though, it could go a long way toward stabilizing the conference.

“The Pac-12’s survival is contingent on keeping intact at least 8 of the current 9 members,” Dellenger added. “A loss of 2 more schools – either Arizona/ASU to Big 12 OR Oregon/Washington to Big Ten – is seen as a likely recipe for collapse. As P12 leaders enter their meeting, neither has happened.

This is a significant update from where the Pac-12 found itself just last night. With Colorado leaving last week, approval for the Big 12 to also snatch up Arizona felt like a major domino to fall. That was especially so when you add in the rumors swirling around other schools like Oregon and Washington.

Even so, signatures on this grant of rights could be the cure that they’ve needed. With their teams locked in, begrudgingly or not, to the deal and with Apple, the Pac-12 would feel a sense of stability that they haven’t had in some time and certainly not in the last week.

All of the momentum when it came to conference realignment had always been pushing against the Pac-12. Now, based on these reports from Dellenger and Wetzel, the winds might be changing depending on who all puts pen to paper with this new deal this morning.

Report: Oregon, Washington to the Big Ten loses momentum as Pac-12 rallies

Momentum for Oregon and Washington to move to the Big Ten from the Pac-12 appears to be slowing down, according to a report by Nicole Auerbach.

This comes as rumors swirl about a possible move. It also comes a night after Washington held a late-night board of regents meeting. However, the Pac-12 has a meeting scheduled for Friday that has renewed optimism about the future of the conference.

One key reason why the potential move to the Big Ten has lost momentum, according to Ross Dellenger, is that schools are reluctant to kill or take the blame for killing the Pac-12. The conference aas existed for more than 100 years and is steeped in tradition. On top of that, the powerhouse programs in the Big Ten have pushed back against some of these additions. Their concern is that not enough is to be gained by adding new schools.

In the meeting on Friday, they will reportedly discuss a grant of rights. That would keep the conference tied together legally and is something that the conference is cautiously optimistic about according to Dan Wetzel.