Rose Bowl Deal Favors the Big Ten : College football: New ABC contract would be adjusted if Pac-10 also adds a team.

As if the Pacific 10 Conference hasn’t already made enough news in the past week, league sources said Monday that a multiyear contract extension involving the Pac-10, the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl and ABC will be agreed upon “within days.”

The deal, which comes amid rumors of possible Pac-10 membership expansion and Washington’s return to the top of the Associated Press ratings, adds four years to the existing agreements and features a financial formula that favors the Big Ten.

Right now, the ABC television contract with the Pac-10 and Big Ten, whose proceeds are split evenly between the leagues, is scheduled to end with the conclusion of the 1996 regular season. The network’s coverage of the ratings-heavy Rose Bowl is to end after the 1997 game.

However, the new extension would guarantee an alliance among the four parties until 2001. More important, it would give the 11-member Big Ten a slightly larger share of the television money. Instead of a 50-50 split, the Big Ten, which will add Penn State to its football schedule next season, will receive 52.4% of the package and the Pac-10 47.6%.

As for the Rose Bowl, it will continue to pay the Pac-10 and Big Ten equal amounts. Last year, not counting expenses incurred by the Rose Bowl committee, the leagues shared $11.5 million.

Financial terms of the impending deal were not available, but the contract calls for the conferences’ 21 members to get an annual increase in rights fees. Given the nervousness surrounding future TV negotiations with the NFL and major league baseball, the escalating payoffs for the Pac-10 and Big Ten were pleasant developments.

Pac-10 Commissioner Thomas Hansen wouldn’t comment on the deal, but according to sources, the conference agreed to the revised formula because it recognizes the value of an 11th Big Ten institution such as Penn State. The agreement is also an acknowledgment of the power of the Central and Eastern time zone television audiences.

But also written into the contract is a clause that will adjust the split if the Pac-10 expands its membership roster, thus matching the Big Ten total.

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that Pac-10 officials, during an Oct. 20 meeting with their Big Ten counterparts in Seattle, discussed the possibility of asking Big Eight Conference member Colorado to join the league. The same story quoted a source as saying there will be “movement” regarding Colorado within the next few months and added that the University of Texas was a second candidate.

“We’ve not had any formal discussions at all,” Hansen said Monday. “I think there’s been all kinds of informal discussions.”

Hansen said rumors of expansion began as early as two years ago, when Penn State agreed to join the Big Ten. Since then, a contingency plan designed to protect the Pac-10 from future conference realignments has been discussed.

“Have we surveyed (Colorado and Texas) and reviewed their overall programs? Yes,” Hansen said. “Have we said these are the ones we’re going to invite? No.”

In fact, Hansen said that if there is no more conference movement, “our folks would be pleased to retain their current membership.” But if schools, especially those in the Big Eight and somewhat fragile Southwest Conference, decided to bolt, the Pac-10 wouldn’t hesitate to pursue additional members.

“We’re going to react to movement elsewhere,” he said. “We’ll probably be in a defensive posture. I don’t think we’re going to trigger any initial move.”

Perhaps not, but Robert Bockrath, athletic director at California, said his president, Chang-Lin Tien, would support inviting additional members that met the league’s academic and athletic standards.

“I think eventually there will be (expansion),” Bockrath said. “In order to continue the competitive vitality of the conference, you almost have to expand. I don’t know if it will be next year or in the next 10 years.”

If it were up to Colorado football Coach Bill McCartney, his school would stay in the Big Eight.

“I’m loyal to the Big Eight,” he said. “I’m proud of the Big Eight and I want to stay in it, if anybody’s asking my opinion.”

McCartney added, “From everything I can gather around here, Colorado has no intentions of leaving the Big Eight.”

Then again, it isn’t McCartney’s decision to make. In this case, Colorado President Judith Albino will have a key role.

In a roundabout way, Albino has ties to the Pac-10. While an associate provost at State University of New York Buffalo in the mid-1980s, Albino was responsible for the school’s department of athletics. The president of SUNY Buffalo at the time was Steven B. Sample, now president of USC.

Even if Colorado is actively pursuing entry into the Pac-10, at least one high-ranking member of the league said the school would have a difficult time receiving unanimous approval from conference officials. According to Pac-10 by-laws, a unanimous vote is required for such an expansion.

“And the likelihood of putting together 10 votes is probably not that good,” the officialsaid.

If anything, Texas would be the more appealing. Although both institutions have respected academic programs, Texas’ range of Division I-A men’s and women’s sports is an attractive selling point. The addition of a Southwest school would also allow the Pac-10 to enter a television market two time zones away, rather than merely one.