Sources: Arizona deal with Big 12 expected to be finalized soon - ESPN

Arizona is in deep discussions about joining the Big 12, sources told ESPN, with a deal expected to be finalized in the near future.

The school is amid the final steps, sources said, including detailing the move in an Arizona board of regents meeting Thursday night. Big 12 presidents and CEOs met Thursday to vote on approving the move, sources confirmed to ESPN, another sign of the likelihood of it happening.

Barring an unexpected turn in the board of regents meeting, Arizona's decision is expected be formalized soon, sources said.

Arizona would be the second Pac-12 school to leave for the Big 12 in essentially a week, as Colorado announced last Thursday that it was heading to the league.

The expected move would reduce the Pac-12 to just eight schools, and it emerges on the same day that the Big Ten presidents and chancellors authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to formally explore adding Pac-12 members Oregon and Washington.

The expected move by Arizona has been viewed as a key fulcrum for the future of the Pac-12, which presented a primarily streaming-based deal with Apple to its membership on Tuesday. That doesn't appear to have rallied the league together, as Arizona's intentions to finalize the deal with the Big 12 have emerged since the Pac-12 presentation. It's unknown how the move would impact that deal.

The spotlight will quickly shift to Pac-12 members Arizona State and Utah, which could take a few days to determine their future. The Big 12 also has courted those two, the final two of the so-called «Corner Schools.» But they always have been on a separate timeline from Colorado and Arizona, which both had meetings with the Big 12 in recent months before jumping aboard.

Utah and Arizona State have been more