Pete Thamel reveals push made by Oregon, Washington to join Big Ten after Pac-12 meetings

The Big Ten made a massive push to finally get Oregon and Washington into the Big Ten to increase the West Coast presence, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

It was a rollercoaster of a move dating back to Thursday where it looked over for the Pac-12. Going into Friday, it seemed like the Pac-12 wasn’t done after all, and could save Oregon and Washington.

That turned out to not be the case as the Big Ten kept its eyes on Oregon, as well as Washington, and made the final play.

“It wasn’t a final push,” Thamel said on ESPN. “It was a final negotiation. Oregon played hardball. Both of those schools are only going to get about a half share of what the Big Ten pays out, which is a nebulous figure that I’m going to roughly say is nearly $70 million for the other 16 schools and will be in the 30s [on] an escalating scale for Oregon and Washington. 

“And there was some thought in the Oregon campus that quite frankly, they were low-balled, and so they pushed the negotiation to the very end.”

In fact, since Oregon wanted to play hardball, it reignited the Pac-12 hopes of staying together and not being totally decimated.

“And in a way, their sticking around and staying interested in the Pac-12 business sort of intensified and fueled some of those hopes that existed early Friday morning,” Thamel said. “But once that meeting didn’t end with a grant of rights being signed and never really got off the ground, it was fairly clear that barring some late snag, Oregon and Washington were going to end up in the Big Ten by the end of the day. 

“The Ducks and the Huskies — two teams who’ve played in the College Football Playoff in the last decade — are now Big Ten members.”

Late on Thursday news broke that the Pac-12 presidents would meet on Friday morning and potentially get the nine remaining programs — Arizona, Oregon and Washington included — to sign the new Grant of Rights for a media deal primarily via Apple TV streaming. It seemed the Pac-12 might’ve rallied to keep the league whole(ish).

However, Oregon reportedly raised some last-minute concerns about the revenue totals in the Pac-12 deal and the Grant of Rights didn’t get consummated by the league on Friday. Shortly after it broke that the Pac-12 hadn’t staved off the poachers, the intensity rose once again in the Big Ten’s pursuit of the northwestern schools.

The Big Ten presidents met mid-day on Friday to keep pushing ahead and hammer out finer points of the deal. Shortly after noon on the East Coast, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the Big Ten was planning to vote later that day to send formal invitations to Oregon and Washington, barring any further snags.

Sure enough, Oregon and Washington will be Big Ten members, thanks in large part to the conference’s push to end the ride and get it done.