It's T-minus one week until the Pac-12 almost certainly adds Texas State and with that July 1 deadline looming, the conference has struck another important deal in its climb out of the grave.
On Monday, the Pac-12 announced CBS as its "primary" media partner, extending the league's agreement with the television network through the 2030 football season.
With the move, the Pac-12 football and men's basketball championship games will air on CBS (and Paramount+) through 2030-31, and a "minimum" of three regular season games in each sport will also air on the network. An undisclosed amount of games will also air on CBS Sports Network, the company's cable offering. For CBS, Pac-12 rights will supplement the network's Big Ten rights, which it splits with Fox and NBC.
"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," CBS executive VP of programming Dan Weinberg said. "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 faces something of a hard deadline to expand by the end of the month. NCAA rules require a conference to have eight members at the FBS level, and the Pac-12 currently sits at seven with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State committed to join on July 1, 2026.
As explained here, Texas State is the overwhelming favorite to become the eighth Pac-12 school, due largely to the process of elimination. AAC rules make it cost prohibitive to add a western member of the American such as Tulane, Memphis, UTSA or North Texas, and Mountain West members Air Force and UNLV have already opted to remain in their current leagues. Meanwhile, Texas State's buyout to get out of the Sun Belt in time for the 2026 football season doubles from $5 million to $10 million on July 1.
With CBS officially on board to show a total of four games on broadcast television, the Pac-12 will now focus its efforts on securing additional broadcast partners to show more than a handful of games per year.