Rebuilt Pac-12 Signs 5-Year Extension With CBS Sports
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Rebuilt Pac-12 Signs 5-Year Extension With CBS Sports
CBS Sports will be the expanded conference’s anchor media partner for five years when it welcomes seven new member schools in 2026. The distribution deal for the “new Pac-12” runs through the 2030-31 academic year. Financial details were not disclosed, as the conference remains in the market to add more media partners. Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State will join the Pac- 12 in July 2026, all in their final year with the Mountain West Conference. The Mountain West is in the final year of its broadcast rights deal with CBS Sports.
The distribution deal for the “new Pac-12” runs through the 2030-31 academic year, with football and men’s basketball games airing on CBS, Paramount+ and the CBS Sports Network.
The deal, announced in an embargoed press release Monday, is technically an extension of an agreement CBS Sports signed with the conference in late April. The current two-school Pac-12 of Oregon State and Washington State re-signed with the CW while also adding ESPN and CBS Sports for the 2025 season.
Financial details were not disclosed, as the conference remains in the market to add more media partners. Octagon, which the Pac-12 hired in an advisory role in November, negotiated the 2025 and 2026 deals.
The extension will include a minimum of three regular-season football games and at least three men’s basketball games on broadcast channel CBS and streamer Paramount+. The remainder of CBS Sports’ Pac-12 inventory will air on CBS Sports Network, with a schedule to be announced at a later date. The conference championship games for both sports will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
In July 2026, the Pac-12 will add Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State, all which are currently in their final year with the Mountain West Conference. Gonzaga, the longtime power of the West Coast Conference, is also joining the new Pac-12. Since Gonzaga does not have football, the Pac-12 will need to at least one more full-time member with football to qualify for the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Several universities have been linked to the conference over the past year. Texas State, now in the Sun Belt Conference, has been reported as a likely Pac-12 target. ESPN reported that on July 1, the exit fee Texas State would have to pay the Sun Belt to leave the conference grows from $5 million to $10 million.
Sacramento State has also been mentioned in media reports. Although the school is joining the football-less Big West Conference in 2026, its football program is applying to be an FBS independent.
Announcements on new members and additional long-term media partners for the Pac-12 will be made in the coming weeks.
The Mountain West, which began mediation with the Pac-12 over the pending departure of five schools last month, is in the final year of its broadcast rights deal with CBS Sports. Though the MWC is losing five members to the Pac-12, it is gaining four new full-time members in UTEP, Hawaii, UC-Davis and Grand Canyon.