Sources - Big 12, Pac-12 won't partner as talks officially end

Talks about a partnership between the Big 12 and the Pac-12, which had been discussed extensively the past two weeks, have officially ended, sources told ESPN.

Officials from the Big 12 told Pac-12 officials on Monday that they're no longer interested in exploring the partnership, sources said.

A Big 12 source said that the deal didn't work for the Big 12 for «a multitude of reasons,» which included the fact that any potential deal wouldn't have driven much revenue for the league. «It just didn't work,» the source said.

There's been at least three Zoom calls between top league officials in the Big 12 and the Pac-12 and other calls between other factions of the league — including legal — to discussion different options. The extent of the conversations had not been previously reported.

A Pac-12 source briefed on the conversations said that the Big 12 had expressed interest on Friday in possibly exploring a full merger. The Big 12 source said of the three options laid out by the Pac-12 — pooling rights, a scheduling concept or fully combining the leagues — that the only scenario that could have potentially driven value because of the sheer numbers of schools and populations areas was a full merger of the leagues.

The Pac-12 source indicated the Big 12 was interested in that option. A Big 12 source said the Big 12 needed more time to explore that option further, which it did over the weekend and decided not to explore any options further.

The Pac-12 source said that the Pac-12 was skeptical of the full merger because the leagues' media rights expire at different times. A Big 12 source countered that the Pac-12 had expressed ways they could work around that.

«Because the Big 12 media rights can't be negotiated until 2024,