The UC Board of Regents on Tuesday adopted a proposal that will require Big Ten-bound UCLA to transfer $10 million annually to Cal’s athletic department for the next three school years.
UC system president Michael Drake recommended the $10 million payment last week, but his proposal called for the payments to extend through 2029-30. After a pre-vote discussion, board members made a motion to scale back the proposed payments from six years to three, under the condition they revisit the issue at that time.
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In late 2022, the Board of Regents discussed possibly overturning UCLA’s decision to leave the Pac-12 due in part to the negative financial impact on Cal-Berkeley’s athletic department. (USC, as a private school, does not fall under the board’s purview.) As a condition of approving the move, the board instructed Drake to recommend an annual payment from UCLA to Cal — now nicknamed “Calimony” — in the range of $2 million to $10 million.
The Pac-12 at the time was still in the midst of negotiations over its next media rights deal, which ultimately collapsed in August 2023. Cal subsequently joined the ACC, where it will begin competing this fall but will receive only a 30 percent share of the league’s Tier 1 media revenue for its first seven years in that league — initially just north of $20 million a year.
UCLA is expected to make roughly three times that from its share of the Big Ten’s deals with Fox, CBS and NBC, all of which run through 2029-30. That conference also makes significantly more in postseason revenue. But now, UCLA will pocket $10 million less per year than the current Big Ten schools for the next three years, on top of increased expenses related to its conference move.
“It is anticipated that there will be an approximately $50 million difference between UCLA’s Big Ten contract and UC Berkeley’s agreement with the ACC,” Drake wrote to the board last week. “As a result, the President is proposing that UCLA contribute $10 million a year to UC Berkeley, the top end of the range established by the Regents in December 2022.”
In 2022, chancellor Gene Block told the regents UCLA expected to spend an extra $10.32 million a year on travel, mental health, nutrition and academic support for its athletes upon joining the Big Ten.
Part of UCLA’s stated intention at the time for joining the nation’s richest conference was the athletic department’s financial difficulties in recent years. It posted a $36.6 million deficit in fiscal year 2023, its fifth straight year in the red.
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But Cal is in even worse shape financially. It received a $36.7 million university subsidy that year and still finished with an $8.8 million deficit — this despite receiving a $37 million distribution from the Pac-12, more than it can expect in the ACC.
One bit of good news for UCLA: Beginning in 2026, Big Ten schools will receive around $21 million annually from the new College Football Playoff Contract, more than double what it received under the current structure. Cal and the other ACC schools will receive a smaller payment of $13 million per year.
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
