US college sports’ Pac-12 conference has extended its domestic rights agreement with CW Network, the entertainment-focused commercial broadcaster, as it looks to consolidate its broadcast partners ahead of its expansion next season.
The five-year extension was brokered by international sports agency Octagon, which was unveiled as Pac-12’s exclusive media rights advisor last November, and will see the conference continue to be aired on CW through the 2030-31 academic year.
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Under the extension, The CW will provide coverage for 13 college football regular-season games per year, along with 35 men’s and 15 women’s basketball regular-season games.
Additionally, The CW will also show the women’s basketball conference semifinal and championship games. All 66 Pac-12 matches aired by The CW will be produced by the conference’s media arm, Pac-12 Enterprises.
CW first partnered with Pac-12 ahead of the 2024 college football season, signing a one-year football-only deal before teaming up with national networks ESPN and CBS Sports in April to secure rights to the conference’s 2025 college football season.
Under that deal, the trio will combine to show the 13 home games involving Oregon State University (OSU) and Washington State University (WSU), with two games airing on CBS and streaming platform Paramount+, nine on The CW, and two on ESPN.
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By GlobalDataCBS has also secured a separate rights extension with Pac-12 covering all sports that will start when the new member schools join and run through the 2030-31 academic year.
Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said: “The Pac-12’s partnership with The CW has been one of mutual growth and transformation, from the development of our Pac-12 Enterprises’ broadcast production business to the significant added value and positive impact to our current and future members via true national reach across 100% of US television households.”
The new deal comes as Pac-12 prepares to enter its final season as a two-team conference, with eight colleges signed up to be involved with the conference across the 2026-27 season.
Pac-12 has been rebuilt over the past year after 10 of its 12 members left to join the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 in recent years. Now, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, and Gonzaga have joined or are preparing to join the two remaining schools, Oregon State and Washington State.
Before the 2026 season, the Pac-12 also needs to add at least one more football-playing member to fulfill NCAA requirements.
The departure of those 10 members came following a series of botched Pac-12 media rights agreements across 2022 and 2023 (meant to kick off during the 2024 season) – with the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 all, therefore, able to offer member colleges more lucrative deals than the Pac-12 that year.
The Big 12, for example, has a $2 billion deal with Fox and ESPN in place through 2036.
On the back of the new rights deal, Pac-12 Enterprises also announced a new partnership with telecoms company Lumen Technologies that will see it utilize Lumen’s NaaS (Network-as-a-Service) platform to produce live sports broadcasts remotely from its headquarters in San Ramon, California.
Pac-12 Enterprise will use Lumen NaaS for the first time for football, beginning with Washington State’s season-opening home game against Idaho on August 30, which will be aired by The CW.
Along with NaaS, Pac-12 Enterprises uses other Lumen services, including Vyvx Broadcast Solutions for video acquisition and distribution, as well as DIA and Wavelength services for facility connectivity.
Dave Ward, chief technology and product officer at Lumen Technologies, said: “Sports broadcasting is undergoing a seismic shift, and Lumen technology is powering it.
“Live sports broadcasts demand flawless execution – near-zero delay, rock-solid reliability, and the power to spin up bandwidth instantly, ensuring fans get a front-row experience with every game, no matter where they are.”
