The Pac-12 is exploring a near billion dollar loan in order to plug its COVID-induced budget hole, according to a report Wednesday from Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury-News.
The loan could provide up to $83 million in immediate assistance -- $996 million in total -- at a 3.75 percent interest rate over 10 years, though it's not clear if every school would take the full amount, or if every school would opt in to the program. USC and Stanford are particularly unlikely to accept the offer, the report said.
The loan wouldn't necessarily make Pac-12 schools any more likely to cancel the football season -- the stated intent would be to support Olympic sports and avoid layoffs, adding the borrowed money to whatever the 2020 football season manages to bring in. The idea of a loan is reportedly appealing to university presidents because it would allow them to focus their financial efforts on saving the English lit department, not the soccer team.
Though, if the 2020 season were to be canceled, the need for a loan would become that much more glaring.
The conference could borrow against future earnings in new TV rights deals, which are scheduled to expire in 2024.