LOS ANGELES — When the Pac-10 expanded in 2011, adding Utah and Colorado, it also signed the richest television deal in college sports history. The conference earned praise for the $3 billion, 12-year deal that almost tripled the Pac-10's annual television revenues.
"It was a landmark deal at the time," said Scott Barnes, who was named the Oregon State athletic director in 2016.
That time has passed.
Analysis of public tax documents filed by each of the Power 5 conferences in the years since the Pac-12 was born show that the conference has fallen behind competitors such as the SEC and Big Ten in revenue, reducing the money the conference distributes back to its member schools. Since the Pac-12 locked down its historic agreement, the SEC extended its deal with ESPN in 2013 and created the SEC Network. The SEC's revenue almost doubled in two years after the extension. The Big Ten jumped into the lead in 2016 with a six-year deal worth a reported $2.64 billion that vaulted the conference from $512 million revenue in the 2016-17 fiscal year to $758 million, which was the most for any Power 5 league.
