Utah Ute's Agreement with the Big 12
Ninety-nine year term exemption, no signing bonus or application fee
I received a copy of Utah’s agreement with the Big 12 today. It includes the Grant of Rights (as amended and restated). The full document is attached below.
The business terms of the agreement differ from UCLA and Oregon’s agreement with the Big 10 in the following way:
Utah pays no application fee to the Big 12 versus Oregon paying $7.5 million and UCLA paying $15 million to the Big 10. I’m guessing the Big 10 fans will say it’s like joining a league at the local muni versus joining a private country club.
There is no out-clause if the Big 12 makes changes in conference membership that negatively impacts Utah’s revenue. UCLA and Oregon both have such a termination clause.
Full membership in Big 12 versus partial membership for Oregon in the Big 10
Exemption from the 99 year conference membership requirement
No provisions to borrow against future media revenue as included in Oregon’s agreement.
Utah has a “One foot out the door” clause. The Utah Chancellor is given the right to attend Big 12 Board meetings as a non-voting member with access to all information presented to the Board. Oregon and UCLA may have this access but I did not see a similar provision in their agreements.
For the first year of Utah’s membership they fall within the expiring media rights deals, so they won’t benefit from revenues reported for the new deal that takes effect in 2025.
I’m still waiting on University of Washington (Big 10) and California (ACC) to conduct a complete comparison of the agreements. If you see anything of interest in the documents please leave a comment.
Full Agreement:
