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The Pac-12 Conference that the Utah Utes are joining could be about to get real rich, real fast.
The mammoth $1 billion cable television deal that the Big 12 Conference struck this week with Fox Sports Networks could portend an equally lucrative — or even richer — jackpot for the Utes and the Pac-12, which is negotiating a new broadcast deal of its own to begin in 2012-13.
Commissioner Larry Scott would not comment Friday on the progress of those negotiations or when they might conclude, but he did sound as if he expects the Big 12 deal to help establish a price for what he has repeatedly called an "undervalued" product in the expanded Pac-12.
"It is helpful to see such a significant increase in Big 12 rights," he said through a spokesman.
The Big 12 deal is worth an average of $90 million a year for 13 years, for a grand total of about $1.17 billion. That more than quadruples the value of its current cable deal worth $20 million a year, according to Sports Business Daily, and comes after Colorado and Nebraska defected from the league last summer.
It also covers only the second-tier games not broadcast as part of the Big 12's separate agreement with ABC/ESPN, which runs for four more years and is worth $60 million annually.
Against that backdrop, an analyst told the San Jose Mercury News last week that the Pac-12 can expect to sign an all-inclusive rights deal for upward of $220 million annually.
That would exceed the $205 million a year deal that the Southeastern Conference reached with CBS and ESPN three years ago and give a boost to the financially challenged programs in the Pac-12.
In such a case, each member could receive as much as $18 million a year from broadcast rights — which would triple the $6 million they will receive in the final year of the current deal next year.
The Utes were expected to receive about $1.2 million in 2010-11 from their current television deal in the Mountain West Conference, but they won't get a full share of Pac-12 revenue until 2014-15, under the terms of their admission to the league.
They will, however, immediately earn abowut $2 million from the deal with Fox to televise the Pac-12's inaugural championship game next season, which Utah athletic director Chris Hill has said will cover an expected budget deficit next year, since the Utes wouldn't otherwise receive money from either the Pac-12 or the Mountain West in that span.
Scott declined to comment on whether the Pac-12 is seeking a deal as long as the Big 12 version, but The Wall Street Journal reported recently that he's seeking a 10-year contract worth $2.3 billion and that Comcast, ESPN and Turner Sports were among the main bidders.
Whatever agreement Scott signs almost certainly will allow the creation of a Pac-12 Network that would help assure all its football and men's basketball games are televised, along with the league's Olympic sports.
Scott said recently that although plans for such a network have not been finalized, the league is "very seriously down the track" in the planning process.