How Tulane Green Wave is Positioning Itself for Conference Realignment
The Tulane Green Wave just joined the American Athletic Conference in 2022. But conference realignment may give Tulane the opportunity to move to another conference.
It would appear that the Green Wave is not taking a wait-and-see approach to the conversation.
Matt Brown of Extra Points, a newsletter that covers the business of college sports, wrote an in-depth piece about what is next after the Pac-12 Conference invited four Mountain West schools to join the conference in 2026.
Among the questions he dove into were potential targets from other conferences. In the immediate term, the Pac-12 needs at least eight members by the fall of 2026 to be considered a football conference by the NCAA.
The league is currently operating under a two-year grace period after 10 of its members joined the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the ACC.
Brown wrote that Tulane was one of three American schools he was aware of that had hired a consulting company or a third-party firm to help prepare them for potential realignment in the Pac-12 or other conferences.
He also reported that other schools, such as Memphis, Rice and UTSA would be interested in talking with the Pac-12 assuming the broadcast revenue distribution could beat what they're currently earning in the American.
Per The Athletic, the American’s television deal with ESPN pays members about $7 million per school. That figure does not include other conference revenue like NCAA tournament units and conference championships.
It's not clear what a reimagined Pac-12 would get on the open market. Oregon State and Washington State signed a one-year deal earlier this year with Fox and the CW to most of its home games broadcast. But the details of that deal were not disclosed.
There are other financial considerations for a potential move, considerations that Brown did not go into.
Each of the four Mountain West schools will have to pay the conference $17 million in exit fees, which is common practice in these situations. It's possible the Pac-12 could cover this cost. But there is also additional cost for the Pac-12.
In the scheduling agreement the Pac-12 signed with the Mountain West for the 2024 football season, the Pac-12 agreed to pay buyout fees and poaching fees for any Mountain West school it lured away. Per Pro Sports, the Pac-12 must pay $110 million in buyout fees and $43 million in poaching fees.
Those fees may lead the Pac-12 to look elsewhere.
The American requires a $10 million buyout on 27 months notice. UConn negotiated an exit of $17 million to leave sooner when it returned to the Big East.
