Two reasons:

1 - they are maximizing every dollar of their value. As Wilner gleefully told us, the Big 12 was foolish for taking a bid during an exclusive negotiating window. Foolish for not going out to the public market to get every potential bidder. Well, in exchange for that, the Big 12 got security. They got a deal signed and on networks that people will find.

So, if the Pac-12 deal _maximizing_ revenue is barely even to the Big 12 deal on ESPN & Fox, they're a little behind already.

2 - NCAA credits. Each game you play in the NCAA is worth 2,022,846 over 6 years or $337,000 per game. So, rough numbers, let's say the Big 12 plays in 20 games and the Pac-12 plays in 5.
That's $6,740,000 for the Big 12 vs $1,685,000.

An extra $5 mil a year, every year? Paid out over 6 years, that adds up.


But the big point is the Pac-12 may be trumpeting in the next week or two "HEY, WE GOT $32 mil from Amazon and the Big 12 only got $31.7 from ESPN."

You're already $5mil behind from basketball, plus you owe Comcast $50mil, plus we're about to cash a check from OU/TX for $50 mil whatever they negotiated down to for the buyout. PLUS we're playing our games on channels where people find football rather than hoping Amazon Prime works as a live sports outlet.


Anyway, do you want to know what you get when you don't prioritize security? The opposite of security.