UW president says Big Ten move 'About stability'

University of Washington president Ana Marie Cauce said Saturday that the program's departure from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten alongside Oregon was "not just about dollar and cents" but rooted in a myriad factors, one of those being that the proposed TV rights deal between the Pac-12 and Apple did not provide the long-term stability the school was looking for.

"When you have a deal that people are saying that one of the best aspects are that you can get out of it in 2 years, that tells you a lot," Cauce said in a press conference call with media. "This was about national visibility for our players, being on linear TV so they can be seen, so they could have the national exposure. It was about stability.. It was about having a future that we could count on and built towards."

Cauce went on to say that the TV deal the Pac-12 presidents had been discussing a few days before was not the same one that was on the table at the end, and that the opportunities and stabilities provided by the Big Ten were "simply unmatched."

"I have to say this was heart-wrenching," Cauce said. "For more than a year, all of us worked really, really hard to find a viable path forward that would keep us together."

Arizona State president Michael Crow, who also spoke to the media Saturday in the wake of ASU's own departure to the Big 12, had a different outlook despite also leaving the conference. According to Crow, ASU was heavily interested in the Apple deal, which would allow for instant digitization of ASU football, men's basketball and women's basketball games that would enhance the viewing experience as well as the athlete's ability to use game tape for their own purposes.

"There was some risk but huge opportunity," Crow said. "Some of the schools were committed to that but it created this another destabilizing moment of sort of tradition vs. this modern thing so a lot of back and forth."

Cauce and Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen were clear in their media availability that they were not in favor of the Apple deal, which they expected to be one of several potential TV deals to assess, not the only one, as it turned out to be.

"I have every reason to believe that offers fell apart because of factors beyond [commissioner George Kliavkoff's] control," Cauce said. "There was enough uncertainty [with the Apple deal]. We had been living in uncertainty for too long to continue in that level. It makes it very, very hard to build."

The sudden departure of Oregon and Washington seemed to prompt those schools on the fence, like ASU, to make a decision on their own future as well. When Crow showed up to a pivotal meeting between Pac-12 presidents at 7 a.m. PT Friday morning, he noticed two schools were absent from the call. That told Crow all he needed to know.

"You might know there then that the conference is no longer viable," Crow said. "We were interested on finding a way to connect to more people, but we have to be in a viable conference to do that."

According to Crow, while Colorado's decision to leave the Pac-12 to the Big 12 last week was not fully responsible for their eventual move to the same conference, it did create an unstable moment that put the conference and its remaining members on notice. Once Oregon and Washington made their decision, Crow said the school was forced to act and seek a viable conference - in their case, the Big 12 alongside Arizona and Utah.

"There are a lot of forces at work, including the overlords of the media empires that were driving a lot of this," Crow said. "[ASU] was one of the stalwarts fighting for the Pac-12 until the last moment."

ASU athletic director Ray Anderson said the program was trying to save the conference and stayed "in the trenches" for as long as they could until it became clear that staying was no longer an option.

Cauce and Cohen seemed to arrive at that point earlier, along with Oregon, and on Saturday, they attempted to expression a combination of melancholy for leaving the Pac-12 and excitement as they discussed the sudden move the Huskies were making to a new conference.

"I'll be the first to say this is not perfect," Cohen said. "There will be challenges. This does require a lot of change in adaptability. Part of the decision was that we felt very confident in the agreement we had with the Big Ten to have the resources to adapt to the challenges, including travel costs and additional resources, that our student athletes are going to need to have a successful experience in the Big Ten."