The Pac-12 Just Filed a Tax Return Showing $111,500,000.
Last Year It Was $566,633,186.
The Pac-12 Conference quietly filed its FY2025 Form 990 in mid-May. The number on the front page is $111,500,000 in total revenue. The year before, it was $566,633,186. That is roughly $455,133,186of conference revenue gone in twelve months — an 80 percent collapse and one of the largest single-year drops any nonprofit athletic conference has ever recorded.
The story behind the number is short and very specific. In 2023, the league’s presidents rejected an ESPN offer worth roughly $30,000,000 per school and asked for $50,000,000. ESPN walked. Over the next thirteen months, ten of the conference’s twelve members announced exits — USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, Colorado to the Big 12, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten, Arizona / Arizona State / Utah to the Big 12, Cal and Stanford to the ACC. Two land-grant universities — Washington State and Oregon State — were left holding the wreckage.
The 990 quantifies what happened next. Per-school distributions to WSU and OSU dropped to $29,200,000 and $29,300,000 respectively — roughly $6,000,000 below the pre-collapse average and the lowest Power-5 figure on record. A Senate Commerce Committee report from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)calls the resulting Power-2 / Group-of-5 gap a 584 percent widening since 2002 and a “governance failure.” The new Pac-12 launches July 1, 2026. The old one filed its last meaningful tax return last week.
- $566,633,186FY24 revenuefinal legacy Pac-12 year (10 schools, Rose Bowl-anchored)
- $111,500,000FY25 revenuefirst Pac-2 year (WSU + OSU only); ~80% one-year drop
- $30,000,000ESPN offer rejectedper-school / year · Pac-12 presidents countered at $50M; ESPN walked
- 10schools outUSC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, ASU
- $1,500,000Gould FY25 paycommissioner Teresa Gould · vs. $6.1M for predecessor George Kliavkoff (incl. $5M severance)
The headline figure comes from the Pac-12 Conference’s own IRS Form 990, filed under EIN 94-1459048 and indexed by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. FY2024 total revenue: $566,633,186. FY2025 total revenue: $111,500,000. The gap is the realignment, line-itemed.
The FY25 line is mostly two buckets. College football postseason: $74,400,000 — of which roughly $50,000,000 was the final year of the legacy Rose Bowl contract, an instrument the league no longer controls going forward. CW + Fox media rights: $3,000,000 total — eleven CW games and two Fox games, a placeholder year while the new long-term CW deal ramps. Beginning net assets fell from $128,000,000 to $65,800,000, including $22,900,000 in cash.
College football postseason — $74,400,000 · final-year Rose Bowl distribution (~$50,000,000) plus residual CFP allocations.
Media rights (CW + Fox) — $3,000,000 · placeholder year; 11 CW games, 2 Fox games. New CW long-term deal projects ~$7,000,000-$10,000,000/school by 2030-31.
Per-school distributions · WSU $29,200,000, OSU $29,300,000. Down roughly $6,000,000 from pre-collapse average.
Net assets · $128,000,000 (beginning) → $65,800,000 (ending), incl. $22,900,000 cash.
Commissioner pay · Teresa Gould $1,500,000; George Kliavkoff $6,100,000 (incl. ~$5,000,000 severance from his ouster).
“On July 1, 2026, we are launching a new and different league, and it's not the old Pac-12 — it's a new Pac-12.”
Teresa Gould · Pac-12 Commissioner · via On3 / Sportico
The legacy Pac-12’s last meaningful negotiation was with ESPN. Per Front Office Sports and the Seattle Times, ESPN tabled an offer worth roughly $30,000,000 per school per year. The Pac-12’s presidents — led by then-commissioner George Kliavkoff and shaped by predecessor Larry Scott’s ill-fated Pac-12 Network strategy — countered at $50,000,000. ESPN walked.
The Seattle Times reported that multiple Pac-12 presidents had wanted to take the ESPN deal and were overruled by colleagues chasing what Times reporters called “an unrealistic offer.” The number that was on the table — $30,000,000/school — would have placed the Pac-12 below the Big Ten and SEC but ahead of where it ended up. Instead, two months later, USC and UCLA were on the phone with the Big Ten.
“I'm sorry it came down to this, and I'm sorry I put you in a tough position… I'm sorry that my gain is your loss.”
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark · text message to George Kliavkoff · reported via Sports Illustrated / Marchand-Ourand podcast
The dates are tight. The order matters.
June 30, 2022 — USC and UCLA announce they will join the Big Ten, effective July 2024.
July 27, 2023 — Colorado bolts to the Big 12.
August 4, 2023 — Within 24 hours: Oregon and Washington commit to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah commit to the Big 12. Five schools, one day.
September 1, 2023 — Cal and Stanford join the ACC (with SMU).
November 2023 — Whitman County Superior Court Judge Gary Libey rules WSU and OSU control the Pac-12 board. Washington Supreme Court declines review on December 15, 2023.
February 19, 2024 — Teresa Gould named commissioner, the first woman to lead a Power-conference league.
July 1, 2024 — The ten schools depart. The Pac-12 is reduced to two members. The press calls it the “Pac-2.”
September 12, 2024 — Pac-12 invites Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State; Utah State follows.
October 2024 — Gonzaga joins for non-football sports.
August 27, 2025 — CW extension through 2030-31 announced.
May 14-15, 2026 — FY2025 Form 990 filed. $111,500,000 on the front page.
July 1, 2026 — New Pac-12 launches as a 7-football-member, 9-overall conference (Texas State joining).
Once ten schools had announced exits, a question emerged that conference bylaws hadn’t anticipated: who actually controls the Pac-12 now? The departing schools argued they should retain board votes through the transition. WSU and OSU sued in Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court. Judge Gary Libey ruled in November 2023 that the two non-departing members alone controlled the board. The Washington Supreme Court declined to review on December 15, 2023. The ruling cleared the way for WSU and OSU to negotiate the settlement that followed.
Per Sportico and CBS Sports, the ten departing schools settled by allowing the “Pac-2” to retain roughly $65,000,000 in conference assets — cash, distributions, and forward revenue rights. That settlement is most of why WSU and OSU were able to make $29,200,000 and $29,300,000 per-school distributions at all in FY25; without it, the per-school number falls toward Group-of-5 territory.
Beginning July 1, 2026, the Pac-12 returns as a seven-football-member, nine-overall conference. The football members: Washington State, Oregon State, Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and Utah State. Texas State joins as the seventh football member. Gonzaga joined in October 2024 for non-football sports.
Mountain West exit fees were the price of admission — roughly $18,000,000 per departing school, which would have doubled to $36,000,000 after a June 1, 2025 deadline. The new conference’s revenue model rests on the CW long-term deal, projecting roughly $7,000,000 to $10,000,000per school per year through 2030-31. That’s a fraction of Big Ten or SEC payouts — but the Pac-12’s media-rights bargaining position now sits closer to the upper Group-of-5 than to the Power 4.
“With this collection of schools that were brought together, we should be in a position to receive that [CFP] bid as a group of five most years.”
Scott Barnes · Oregon State Athletic Director · Bend Bulletin · December 2025
“I don't really recognize the Pac-12 as a collection of rejects and misfits… it's just cobbling a bunch of things together.”
Paul Finebaum · ESPN / SEC Network · via On3
Washington State and Oregon State are both land-grant universities. Athletics deficits at land-grants don’t evaporate; they roll into the state’s broader fiscal exposure — through deferred maintenance, bond service, faculty hiring freezes, and Olympic-sport program cuts. WSU has already trimmed Olympic-sport budgets. AD Anne McCoy was fired in November 2025. President Kirk Schulz remains. At OSU, AD Scott Barnes announced he will retire in August 2026; President Jayathi Murthy continues.
In September 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), published “The Growing College Sports Funding Gap.” The committee found that Big Ten and SEC institutions average roughly $43,000,000 per school in TV revenue, against roughly $4,000,000 per school for Group-of-5 institutions — a gap that has widened by 584 percent since 2002. Cantwell, joined by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), has co-sponsored bipartisan college-sports revenue legislation aimed at the gap.
UC Regents who voted Cal-to-ACC were appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA). Stanford is private; Cal is a public land-grant in the same UC system. The vote committed a public California land-grant to a coast-to-coast football schedule paying less than its previous Pac-12 deal — a decision made by gubernatorial appointees, not elected legislators.
Washington State — the state’s land-grant flagship — was left holding the largest share of fixed athletic costs in the system. Olympic-sport cuts, deferred-maintenance balances, and bond exposure all trace to a board ruling that the legacy Pac-12 was no longer the conference of record.
Oregon State — Oregon’s land-grant — faces the same fiscal posture, with an AD retiring as the rebuilt conference launches.
“There was something different last week about the questions around the existence of the Pac-12 conference, given its long and storied history… a little tinge of sadness, probably more than just a little.”
Greg Sankey · SEC Commissioner · ESPN · July 2023
College-sports reporting lives on X. John Canzano’s Pac-12 beat — the only daily independent coverage left of the conference — broke much of the FY25 990 detail. Pete Thamel at ESPN covers the realignment macro story. Brett McMurphy at Action Network has covered the WSU/OSU settlement throughout.
Pac-12 Form 990 for FY25 is in. Total revenue: $111.5M. A year earlier it was $566.6M. The 'Pac-2' year is line-itemed: $74.4M college football postseason (mostly the expiring Rose Bowl), $3M from CW + Fox media, $29.2M per school to WSU, $29.3M to OSU. Commissioner Teresa Gould paid $1.5M. Predecessor George Kliavkoff filing $6.1M (incl. $5M severance).
The Pac-12's last full legacy 990 was $566M. The first Pac-2 year filing is $111M. That gap is the realignment, line-itemed: ten schools out, the Rose Bowl money one-time, and a placeholder year of media rights before the new CW deal ramps. The new Pac-12 launches July 1.
Source on the WSU/OSU settlement: the two retained schools kept roughly $65M in conference assets across the ten departing programs. That settlement is most of why the FY25 per-school distribution lands at $29M instead of falling toward Group-of-5 levels.
As of publication, no Truth Social account — including @realDonaldTrump — has posted substantively on the Pac-12 Form 990, the FY2025 revenue collapse, or the rebuilt conference’s July 2026 launch. The platform’s political-news center of gravity has not engaged with college-sports realignment. We’ve opted not to fabricate a post for symmetry. The social-validation layer for this story is carried by three X posts below.
A century-old conference filed a tax return showing it lost $455,133,186 in twelve months. The decision that produced the number is on the record: Pac-12 presidents declined a $30,000,000/school offer from ESPN, asked for $50,000,000, and watched ten universities walk inside thirteen months. Two land-grants — one in Washington, one in Oregon — were left to rebuild from the wreckage they didn’t choose. A Senate Commerce report calls the resulting gap a 584-percent widening since 2002. On July 1, 2026, the rebuilt Pac-12 launches with seven football members and a media deal that pays a fraction of what was once on the table. The brand survives. The number does not lie.