Fresno State released the term sheet it signed with the Pac-12 Conference and the document, which includes several redacted sections, also includes a clause that will be of major interest to the athletics department, on campus and in the community.
The rebuilt Pac-12 could adopt a minimum investment level for its new members, which would likely be a challenge for the Bulldogs. It states that the four schools make a “commitment to good faith discussions on minimum investment levels within one year of conference membership.”
Fresno State in 2022-23 spent $21 million less on athletics than the average of the Pac-12 schools with football programs including Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State, which made the jump from the Mountain West Conference along with the Bulldogs.
Fresno State’s athletics spending was ahead of just Utah State, the seventh school tied to the rebuild of the Pac-12 led by long-time members Oregon State and Washington State. They were the only two remaining in a league that was decimated by conference expansion a year ago.
Athletics expenses in 2023:
- Oregon State: $98,423,805
- San Diego State: $96,611,742
- Washington State: $90,909,237
- Colorado State: $64,463,788
- Boise State: $58,257,005
- Fresno State: $51,738,485
- Utah State: $51,389,553
The numbers for Oregon State and Washington State include Pac-12 media rights revenue and conference and NCAA distribution. Those numbers will come down, obviously, in the conference’s next media rights deal.
Gonzaga, which accepted an invitation to join the conference on Tuesday, does not field a football team. But it invested nearly $37 million in athletics including $12.5 million on a basketball program that has played in the NCAA Tournament 25 years in a row, according to its U.S. Department of Education Equity in Athletics Data Analysis report.
The average of the five schools in total athletics spending that rank ahead of Fresno State is $81.7 million, and the average of the seven football-playing schools committed to the Pac-12 rebuild at this point is $73.1 million. The Pac-12 must add one more football-playing school to reach the eight members required to be recognized as a FBS (football bowl subdivision) conference.
The Fresno State athletics department is expected to receive double to triple the media rights revenue in the Pac-12 that it received in the Mountain West. But if a conference minimum is established in that neighborhood, the athletics department likely would need substantial assistance from the university, from student fees, from its fan base through donations, corporate sponsorship and ticket sales, or a combination of all three.
This, at a time the campus is bracing for budget cuts due to a reduction in state funding. The university also this year must make a $10.3 million principal and interest payment on the Save Mart Center, and faces a daunting financial challenge in renovating Valley Children’s Stadium and upgrading athletics facilities.
Fresno State president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval was traveling and could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Budgets tightening
The university already has cut institutional support to the athletics department - it received $15.5 million from the university in 2023, according to the financial report it submits annually to the NCAA, down from $18.2 million in 2022.
The Fresno State Academic Senate last spring also passed a resolution decrying the diversion of state funds to athletics over academics and urging budgetary reform.
The Pac-12 term sheet commits the new football schools to compete in football, basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball — that is also the case in the Mountain West — and in all other Pac-12 sponsored sports where a new member has a varsity program. That could lead to some issues, not for the Bulldogs, but for the conference. Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State do not field baseball teams, and the Pac-12 currently has only five that do. To sponsor a sport, a conference must have a minimum of six programs in baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball.
It also is short in men’s soccer, with just Oregon State, San Diego State and Gonzaga.
A long-form agreement with the conference is to be completed by Oct. 11, and membership in the Pac-12 for the Bulldogs, Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State starts on July 1, 2026.
The term sheet also includes more detail on a performance-based revenue sharing model for College Football Playoff and the basketball and women’s basketball NCAA Tournament. A member shall retain 50% of net revenue from any payments made to the conference from the CFP or NCAA, with 50% split among the remaining members.
Fresno State, which has played in just one NCAA Tournament since 2001, could take a hit there. In the Mountain West, that revenue is divided equally among conference members.
The four schools also agreed to a grant of rights through June 20, 2031, which includes all media rights for all sports and data. A school can leave before the grant of rights expires if it receives an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, Big Ten or Southeastern Conference, including a football-only invitation.
A departing school must give one year’s notice and would have to pay liquidated damages equal to the greater of two times that school’s Pac-12 distribution for the preceding year or the aggregate amount the media rights fees are reduced under the media rights agreement for the equivalent of two contract years.
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