Report: Oregon, Washington inform Pac-12 of plan to accept Big Ten invite

Oregon and Washington will officially be on the move soon. According to multiple reports, including one from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo!, Oregon and Washington have informed Pac-12 presidents that they are leaving for the Big Ten. Dellenger added that an official invitation from the Big Ten is expected to come “soon.”

The decision by Oregon was made in part due to the TV rights offer from Apple being so far behind other leagues, Dellenger said.

ESPN insider Pete Thamel reports that the Big Ten vote is expected to be a unanimous approval for the two schools and that Oregon and Washington will leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.

Friday has been a wild day, with reports surfacing Friday morning that Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten had lost momentum. However, if there was indeed momentum lost overnight, it quickly picked back up as Friday went along.

An hour after it was reported that momentum for Oregon and Washington to leave was lost, news broke that the Pac-12 was unable to sign a Grant of Rights deal. A Grant of Rights would have legally bound the remaining Pac-12 schools together and made it difficult to leave the conference.

Not long after Pac-12 schools failed to reach a media rights deal, news broke that Big Ten presidents were meeting about adding Oregon and Washington to the league. During that meeting it was apparently decided that Oregon and Washington will receive invitations.

Dellenger reported that earlier Friday, the Big Ten had cooled on the idea of adding Oregon and Washington, only to re-engage the two schools later in the day.

Oregon and Washington are joining Colorado in leaving the Pac-12, and more departures could be on the way. Colorado announced last month that it was leaving the Pac-12 and returning to the Big 12. Arizona is also rumored to be exploring its options.

Unique to Arizona is its tie to Arizona State, which is seemingly less eager to jump ship. The two schools share a Board of Regents, likely meaning that the Wildcats won’t go unless the Sun Devils do too.

The media deal eventually brought to the table by Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, which was shot down on Friday, was centered around streaming through Apple. That deal, which would have fluctuated financially based on streamers, would start at around $20 million annually per school. The Big Ten, reportedly, offered Oregon and Washington $35-40 million annually, per school.

Kliavkoff remained positive about the media rights deal for months, despite no deal being finalized. It appears as though his optimism was misplaced.

“Getting the right deal has always been important, more important to our board and the conference than getting the expeditious. … The longer we wait for the media deal, the better our options get,”  he said in July.

Recently, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti was given authorization to research Oregon and Washington. Shortly after that, Brett McMurphy reported that the Big Ten had everything it needed on the two programs. Now they will be joining the league.