Pac-12 gave Arizona Athletics and Member Schools $33.6 million

With the year winding down within the Pac-12, the Conference announced their payouts to its member schools and Arizona Athletics will receive $33.6 Million. 

This past year has been a wild one for sports, especially as Arizona Athletics has dealt with game cancellations, tournament cancellations, and little to no fans in attendance. Now despite all of that, the Pac-12 was still able to pay its member schools $33.6 million for 2019-20.

The news of the Pac-12’s payouts broke on Thursday afternoon, and it is a little over a 4 percent increase from the year before. It also comes at a great time for Arizona.

Arizona Wildcats

According to the Arizona Daily Star’s Bruce Pascoe, “The difference is largely because the Pac-12 met most of its media rights obligations in 2019-20, with the football regular season and bowls and the basketball regular season fully completed.”

However, the thing to note here is that the payouts also run a year behind. So meaning in 2020-21, the Pac-12’s payouts to its member schools will most assuredly be less, as the conference feels the full impact of the pandemic.

This past year has certainly been a trying one for everyone, especially for the Pac-12 as the conference has had to make some difficult decisions like cutting staff, decreasing salaries, etc.

With Arizona Athletics also facing a tough year financially, every little bit counts, and the increased payouts from the year prior will surely be more than welcome at this point.

Now, while the $33.6 million is a large chunk of change, it also pails in comparison to the estimated $55.6 million each member school will reportedly receive in the Big-10 last year, or the $45 million in the SEC.

With the Pac-12 hiring George Kliavkoff as its new Commissioner, the former entertainment executive from the MGM has a great opportunity to be more strategic and help increase the payouts for its member schools. The hiring comes at a great time too as the Pac-12 Network media deal is set to expire soon.