Sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that Big 12 executives met Thursday to approve an application for Arizona to join the league. The Arizona Board of Regents was meeting on Thursday night with a formal approval to switch conferences expected to be finalized soon.
Arizona would make the move after Colorado made official its shift in time for the 2024 football season and more schools could be on the way.
Sources told Dellenger that Arizona State and Utah are also expansion targets of the Big 12. However, talks with those schools have not progressed as quickly as Arizona.
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel reported Thursday that the Big Ten is in wait-and-see mode with Oregon and Washington as its focus for possible expansion candidates with the Pac-12 on increasingly shaky ground.
On Thursday night, Dellenger reported that an offer from the Big Ten to Oregon and Washington would not be for a full share of its media rights revenue. Washington regents held a special meeting late Thursday night with most of the 90-minute gathering held in executive session to discuss present, pending or potential litigation with counsel. The meeting included Washington President Ana Mari Cauce and athletic director Jen Cohen, and adjourned around 10:35 p.m. PDT without any action taken.
The Pac-12’s presidents and chancellors were finally presented with the details of the media rights deal on Tuesday. The deal featured the streaming platform Apple as the primary rights holder with potential sub-licensing opportunities to linear television entities like ESPN and Fox.
The deal from Apple is still on the table and Pac-12 presidents are expected to meet Friday.