Pac-12 Hints at More Interest in Tulane and Other Top AAC School
In this story:
The Pac-12 athletic directors held a meeting this week that spanned two days of conversing over expansion and media rights among key points, as reported by columnist John Canzano.
The Tulane Green Wave football team, alongside the Memphis Tigers, may be back in the conversation for realignment.
At present, the new Pac-12 needs one more football-playing member by July 1, 2026, or it will cease to be considered a conference per NCAA rules. However, the rejuvenated conference will want to make a move well prior to that.
Commissioner Teresa Gould and the Pac-12 members extended an invite to Tulane, Memphis, USF Bulls, and UTSA Roadrunners that the four schools turned down last September.
The four ADs had a rare level of communication both by phone and in person to discuss the move, with the Tigers reportedly the kingpins in the deal.
Ultimately, uncertainty over the media rights deal, hefty travel costs and unwillingness by the Pac-12 to cover sufficient exit costs led to the schools turning the offer down in a public joint statement.
The exit fees were a point of contention, with the Pac-12 only willing to cover $2.5 million of the reported $27 million per team.
As Canzano addresses in his reporting, it may not matter too much to the Pac-12 who the additional expansion target is from a TV revenue perspective, per insight from prospective media partners.
He does narrow the focus of the latest updates to two schools; Memphis and Tulane.
Some miscommunication transpired with initial offers; the Pac-12 saw the initial approach as a starting point for lengthy talks; the AAC targets felt lowballed and came out publicly in solidarity with their current conference.
That may have been premature, but in order to reopen talks, the travel costs present a significant challenge, requiring a certain amount of revenue or fees to be covered.
“My sources with the Pac-12 sounded puzzled when those two schools received the initial terms and went public within hours, announcing they were happy and staying in the American Athletic Conference,” Canzano wrote. “The Pac-12 expected some back and forth, and that didn’t happen.”
After the last wave of conference realignment lured the Houston Cougars, Cincinnati Bearcats and UCF Knights to the Big 12, and the SMU Mustangs left for the ACC after the 2023 season, the AAC effectively took the lead.
Commissioner Tim Pernetti knows the fight to retain the schools isn’t over, and it’s clear much more negotiation goes on behind the scenes than is always reported.
Memphis's Top 25 basketball team brings a strong draw, and that lines up with initial reporting on them leading the move.
The Green Wave may not love the Pac-12 situation, but the AAC becomes a different landscape should Memphis depart, and they’d do well to stay strong in solidarity with a partner program for the future of conference realignment — in all possible avenues.
Recommended Articles
Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com