California Regents Set December Showdown for U.C.L.A.’s Big Ten Move

 The University of California Board of Regents on Thursday put off until next month a decision whether to bless or block U.C.L.A.’s move to the Big Ten Conference, saying it needed more time — and information — before making such a consequential call that would also affect the state’s other flagship university, Cal-Berkeley.


The regents have expressed concern about the burden that repeated trips to the Eastern time zone for competitions would place on athletes’ academics and the financial hit Berkeley would take after U.C.L.A.’s departure. But they were also hesitant to set a precedent by overturning — and undercutting the autonomy of — one of their 10 campus chancellors.


So, after meeting in a closed session for 90 minutes, the regents emerged to announce that they would hold a special session on Dec. 14 to resolve the matter.


“I’d look at it like a football game where the call on the field is being reviewed,” said the regent John A. Pérez, a former Assembly speaker. “It’s not about whether we would make the same call. It is whether there is clear evidence that it should be overturned.”


Martin Jarmond, the U.C.L.A. athletic director, called the meeting “informative,” but declined further comment as he hustled to catch a ride to an airport.


U.C. President Michael Drake said the special meeting would “pressure test” the plans U.C.L.A. has laid out. During the open session, a handful of regents asked U.C.L.A. Chancellor Gene Block for more information while revealing little about which way they might be leaning.


Behind the scenes, though, there has been maneuvering.


The regents have expressed some disappointment that the Pac-12 Conference is in negotiations for a television rights deal, because there is no direct comparison against what U.C.L.A. has said will be annual revenues of $60 million to $70 million under the Big Ten contract. (The school has estimated it will spend an additional $10 million per year on travel, nutritional, academic and mental health services after switching conferences.)


But last month, the Pac-12 provided to several regents a glimpse of what its deal, which it has been negotiating for months, might look like if U.C.L.A. decided to remain: a range between $42 million and $47 million per school, with U.C.L.A. getting a little more than the remaining 10 schools in the Pac-12 once Southern California leaves for the Big Ten in 2024, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss them. The holdovers in turn would be getting a little more than San Diego State if it left the Mountain West to become the conference’s 12th team.


Then the Big 12 announced its deal with Fox and ESPN, which will be worth $31.7 million per school.


That number was far enough below expectations that the Pac-12 lowered its estimates for the regents by about 10 percent.

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