Cal's Board of Regents schedule meeting on Pac-12 membership

Cal was dealt a death blow last week, left stranded in the wake of Big Ten and Big 12 expansion.

Now the Golden Bears are left to piece together their future. They are just one of four institutions remaining in the 108-year-old conference.

California’s Board of Regents has scheduled a call for Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. PST. A closed session, the agenda is a discussion on “UC Berkeley Pac-12 Conference Membership.” The next moves for the institution remain to be seen.

The Big 12 now sits at 16 schools. Adding the final four institutions of the nearly-defunct Pac-12 would bring membership to 20. Other rumors that have surfaced since Friday include the possibility of a merger with the Mountain West Conference.

The American Athletic Conference could also be open to a move. The AAC is interested in adding as many as all four of the schools, a source told On3’s Eric Prisbell, which would expand its membership to 18.

“We would be a good landing spot for those schools given our existing ESPN deal, which has a strong linear component, along with our major cities and institutional profiles,” one source said.

Cal has to keep debt in mind

While the Bears last made a bowl game in 2019, the athletic department has had success on-field success. Cal is the No. 4 producer of American Olympians, including 16 athletes on Team USA on the 2021 Tokyo team.

As a department, the Bears are still facing more than $200 million in debt from renovations to Memorial Stadium. Signing the biggest TV payout will be crucial moving forward.

“There’s no denying the significance of this,” head football coach Justin Wilcox told reporters Sunday. “This is as big a deal as it gets to be. Really kind of shocking. Personally, it’s sad. … From what I know, it probably didn’t need to come to this, but things happened along the way and really unfortunate.

“So it’s frustrating, there’s some anger in there, but right now, what we’re focused on is this season.”

The proposed Apple TV+ partnership included a baseline annual revenue figure plus subscription-based incentives. According to The Athletic, Apple offered the Pac-12 members a five-year deal with an annual base rate of $23 million per school (a subsequent counteroffer lifted it to $25 million), with incentives based on projected subscribers. The Pac-12 product would have been similar to Apple’s MLS League Pass.

Cal was ready to sign off on the Grant of Rights, but other conference members had different plans. The Board of Regents now has to figure out the athletic department’s next steps.