CBS Sports and the Pac-12 Conference have announced an extension of their partnership through the 2030-31 season, which establishes CBS Sports as the primary long-term media partner for the new Pac-12.
As part of the extended partnership agreement, Pac-12 football and men’s basketball will air on the main CBS network, Paramount+, and CBS Sports Network.
“Our goal with this process was to find transformational partnerships for the new Pac-12, and throughout our discussions and time together it became more and more clear that a partnership with CBS Sports would be just that,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould. “I am thankful to the team at CBS Sports for seeing our vision and investing in our shared future as we build, launch and realize a new Pac-12 together.”
Below are highlights of the new Pac-12 and CBS Sports partnership:
• Annual football championship game on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+.
• Annual men’s basketball tournament championship game on CBS and Paramount+.
• A minimum of three regular season football games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
• A minimum of three regular season men’s basketball games on CBS and Paramount+ each season.
• Football and men’s basketball games throughout the regular season on CBS Sports Network, with details to be announced at a later date.
“As the new Pac-12’s primary media partner, CBS Sports’ top-tier coverage will showcase the best of the conference’s football and men’s basketball games annually across our platforms, including the championship game for both sports,” said Dan Weinberg, Executive Vice President, Programming, CBS Sports. “Extending this partnership strengthens our multiplatform college football and basketball schedule and, at a pivotal moment for the new Pac-12, allows us to collaborate, grow the conference and expand its reach.”
The Pac-12 will have a different look beginning in 2026, as current members Oregon State and Washington State welcome five new schools from the Mountain West Conference. Those schools include Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State.
An eighth football member still needs to be added, and that school is heavily rumored to be Texas State. Should Texas State make the move, the Sun Belt would reportedly look to Conference USA to fill the vacated spot.
Cal and Stanford haven’t done anything in years but they get to keep playing in the big leagues.
But dont worry Rece Davis will still shout out Ol Crimson on Gameday before the Wazzu San Jose State barnburner……#neverforget #wazzu #beavers #calhasntbeengoodsincekyleboller
If the MW renews with CBS as well, the cable outlet for Pac-12 games really should be Paramount Network, as the Pac-12, even with its diminished stature, is still a more valuable name than the MW, and Paramount Network is in more homes than CBSSN.
Z man I’ll agree with you because you know who won’t!
It is highly doubtful the MWC will renew with CBS.
Unreasonable Reaction Man (Z-man) You are pre-empting TV Programs & Movies from Paramount so you can come up with more obscured sports broadcasting ideas & you are being very unfair to viewers that want to enjoy regularly scheduled programs that air on Paramount.
CBSSN is built for Sports.
Paramount is built for Movies & TV Programs.
Reverend I agree with you.
I really would like ESPN to make a comeback to televise Mountain West athletics.
I hope the Pac-8 will add Texas State and UTSA.
Then, the Sun Belt would add Western Kentucky.
Why isn’t the money being reported?
How much is CBS paying for what is nothing more than the old WAC
Likely because the PAC is wrapping up a second and possibly 3rd media partner deal to then have announce the revenue distributions per school with maybe the expansion member(s) as part of the announcement? What is known at this stage is OSU/WSU will have a slightly larger distribution (2-3m) for the first couple of years.
@Rev–I agree with you, but CBS and the Pac 12 could have told us what CBS is paying—it can’t be very much, probably less than the American, which is why North Texas rebuffed overtures from the Pac 12–they are staying put because they have a better deal with ESPN.
CBS Sports Network is fine and dandy, but where I live, it is on the SportsTier, which I don’t pay for. Actually, it’s on a different tier that would cost me another $25 per month. I pay an extra $10 for Sports Tier I.
Like most, I don’t have tons of discretionary income and I have to pick and choose where I spend it. Hate them all you want, but being on ESPN means something and the American gets their games there and on ESPN+, which is worth the $10 bucks per month.
CBS Sports Network is also not Nielsen rated monitored, so we will never know how many hundreds or thousands are watching these games.
Would you pay $25 per month to see Boise State host Texas State on the blue turf?
John CFB should be choices not ratings.
Couple prime time games & Black Friday 4:00PM would make fantastic fit for CBS on regular TV.
Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t only three football games on the main CBS channel seem very low for a “primary” media partner? That’s even lower and more stark for basketball given how many games are in a season. The Big East gets way more games on FOX by comparison. Getting the PAC-12 championship on CBS for both is a good deal for visibility but there’s just not as much during the regular season. I know there’s room for more but three as a baseline seems very low — for football alone, that equates to CBS broadcasts for just 3 out of 12 weeks in the season. The PAC-12 should have pushed for at least 6 if it’s their “primary” media partner. Gonzaga will likely be the main beneficiary for basketball and if they remain elite, maybe that gets the league more than 3 games on CBS, but the conference will also need programs like San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State to really stand out and be Tournament-level teams as well. I always wondered if St. Mary’s would be worth adding just for the added basketball value alone, although I know football is the primary revenue motivator.
I don’t have any real attachment to the PAC-12 (Syracuse fan) but this doesn’t seem to me to be the type of transformational sort of deal the PAC set out to get. Maybe the other partners will help — possible deals with ESPN, MAX or Apple could provide decent revenue — but this portion of the media rights deal doesn’t feel very strong from an entity being positioned as the top dog in the media rights package. I guess the PAC-12 could always push a “PAC-12 After Dark” package on ESPN or maybe a weekly Thursday or Friday night game for a streamer like Apple/MAX. But it just seems like if this was the deal they got from CBS, the other media rights deal to be announced probably aren’t a whole lot better or enticing, and the overall $$$ number each school will get will likely be on the lower end as reports have predicted.
I mean, how many MW games were shown on network TV?
Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t only 3 football and basketball games minimum on CBS seem very low for a “primary” media partner? This doesn’t seem like the sort of transformational media rights deal the PAC-12 was setting out to get early on — and this deal for the conference’s top dog seems like more bark than bite. For football, 3 CBS games seems very low, to me, since that’s just a quarter of the season. At least 6 would make more sense. But I think it shows the conference will need Boise State to continue to be elite and for other programs like Washington State, Oregon State and Colorado State to take the next step to be more nationally relevant. For basketball, that number is even more stark. Gonzaga will probably be the biggest beneficiary of games on CBS, but it definitely puts more pressure on programs like San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State to perform like Tournament-level teams in order to get more CBS games.
The PAC-12’s full media rights deal hasn’t been announced but hopefully the conference leans in to lovable things like PAC-12 After Dark with a package on ESPN/Apple/MAX, or maybe a sort of weekly Thursday/Friday game on one of the streamers. It just seems though that if this CBS deal marks the “primary” package they got, then it doesn’t seem like the rest of the deals will be super enticing and the end $$$ per school will likely come on the lower end of reported projections, and not the greatest outcome for all the schools.
Throughout this whole thing nothing was mentioned about how much the contract was worth. My guess is the Pac-12 was low balled a little bit but happy just to get an offer from anyone. Usually when a conference/league signs a contract for its media rights the first thing they brag about is how much they are getting from said network (s). So my guess is CBS paid the bare minimum just to keep the Pac happy. But the Mountain West and Pac need to merge because if the Pac-12 isn’t disclosing their numbers (likely because the amount isn’t that great) the reality would be the MWC isn’t going to get much more. A merger of the two brands could lead to much larger contracts with multiple networks and streamers. That merged league could own the west coast and in particular that 10:30p late night spot.
Agree or disagree I enjoy hearing from you Hank Loranger