Pacific-12 Conference Returns To ESPN, CBS For 2025 Football Season

Forbes

30-04-2025

The Pacific-12 Conference will reconnect with ESPN on the gridiron this season. (Photo by Brian ... More Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Pacific-12 Conference is back in the major media market.
The Pac-12 has announced a partnership with ESPN, CBS Sports and The CW Network to telecast all 13 home football games for Oregon State and Washington State in the 2025 season.
The deal marks a return to the league of major players CBS and ESPN, which did not telecast a Pac-12 game last season, as the conference works to develop long-term relationships before the major expansion that will include many of the Mountain West programs in 2026-27.
'Having Pac-12 football featured across three leading broadcasters … will provide tremendous exposure to showcase Oregon State, Washington State and our brand in the Pac-12's final season before expansion,' Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a statement.
Terms of the deal were not announced as the Pac-12 continues to pursue a media deal for 2026-31 through media rights advisor Octagon, veteran Northwest journalist John Canzano reported. Octagon played a major role in the 2025 agreements.
'Putting dollars aside, I think this is a great outcome for OSU and WSU for the 2025 season,' Bob Thompson, the retired president of Fox Sports Networks, told Canzano.
'It appears to give them wide exposure for all of their games, which is paramount at this point. I would assume that the networks that signed up for 2025 have some sort of first rights on 2026 and beyond. It will be interesting to see what the structure of the new deal is.'
Oregon State and Washington are the only remaining members of the conference that dissolved in 2024, but current Mountain West members Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State have agreed to join the Pac-12 in July, 2026.
West Coast Conference basketball power Gonzaga also will join at that point, but because Gonzaga does not field a football team, the Pac-12 will need to add at least one more football-playing school to meet the NCAA's membership requirement for the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
The CW Network telecast 11 Oregon State and Washington State games in 2024 and the FOX network broadcast two as the Pac-10 was forced to seek over-the-air alternatives following the defection of 10 schools.
USC, UCLA Oregon and Washington began play in the Big Ten in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah moved to the Big 12, and Stanford and California to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
ESPN is scheduled to televise two Pac-12 games this season, Oregon State's season-opener against Cal on Aug. 30 and the Beavers' game against Big 12 foe Houston on Friday, Sept. 26., as part of its last-night lineup. Both games are to start 10:30 pm ET.
'Adding these games strengthens ESPN's industry-leading college football slate,' ESPN senior programing director Kurt Dargis said in a statement. 'They deliver meaningful exposure for Oregon State and align well with opportunistic time slots across our platforms.'
After years of partnership, ESPN did not broadcast a Pac-12 game last season following the dissolution of the league. The sides had been in negotiations on a new contract before the breakup but nothing materialized as then-Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff appeared to overplay his hand by turning down ESPN's reported offer of $30 million per school per year in search of more.
CBS and affiliated streaming service Paramount+ is to air two Pac-12 games in prime time, the annual Apple Cup matchup between Washington and Washington State on Sept. 20 and the Washington State-Oregon State games Nov. 1. Both are scheduled for 7:30 pm-8 pm ET starts.
The CW Network's nine games, which will be produced by Pac-12 Enterprises, include a Sept. 6 doubleheader matching current and prospective league members. Oregon State will host Fresno State at 3:30 pm ET and Washington State will host San Diego State at 10:15 pm.
The CW averaged 431,000 viewers for its 11 game last season, 460,000 in games involving FBS opponents. For comparison, ESPN drew 1.66 million viewers for the UCLA-Cal game on Nov. 25, 2023 and 740,000 for the Arizona-Arizona State game earlier that day.