Big Ten decision 'heart-wrenching,' but Washington president couldn't get behind Pac-12 deal

Plus a few details on Washington's Big Ten payouts relative to the proposed Pac-12 guarantee.

SEATTLE — Washington’s president acknowledged the difficult situation Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff found himself in the past year. Ana Mari Cauce said Kliavkoff “worked really hard” to deliver a media-rights deal that would solidify the future of the conference following the departures of USC and UCLA, and that she believes some offers likely fell through “because of other factors beyond his control.”

But Cauce was not so sympathetic in her assessment of the deal Kliavkoff did present to Pac-12 presidents and chancellors earlier this week. Speaking via Zoom on Saturday afternoon, one day after Washington and Oregon announced their decisions to leave for the Big Ten effective next summer, Cauce described it as a “heart-wrenching” choice but one that became obvious after considering a Pac-12 deal that “was not giving us what we thought.”

“It was not the deal we had been discussing just days before, and it was not going to secure (our future),” Cauce said. “When you have a deal where people are saying that one of the best aspects of it is that you can get out of it in two years, that tells you a lot.”