The Pac-10 agreed to a 12-year television contract with Fox and ESPN on Tuesday worth about $3 billion, allowing the conference to quadruple its media rights fees and start its own network. The contract, which will begin with the 2012-13 season, will be worth about $250 million per year, guaranteeing each of the 12 schools in the conference about $21 million, a person familiar with the deal told. Under this deal, Fox and ESPN will split the rights to college football games. ESPN will air its games on cable as well as ABC and Fox will show its games on its broadcast network, basic cable network FX and on the Fox Sports Net regional networks. ESPN will air four prime-time games on both Thursday and Friday nights, as well as a late-night Saturday window for football. There will also be at least five Saturday night prime-time games on ABC or Fox. Men’s basketball games will be split mostly between ESPN and Fox Sports Net, with ESPN showing games on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, as the conference becomes more flexible with scheduling. ESPN will also have the rights to the Pac-12 women’s basketball championship. The two entities will alternate showing the Pac-12 football championship game and the men’s basketball tournament. Fox, which will air the inaugural football title game this season, will have the first football championship under this contract in 2012, with ESPN getting the men’s basketball tournament later that season, a person familiar with the deal said.
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