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Pac-12 Conference leadership pitched university presidents and chancellors a strategic plan aimed at bailing out the struggling conference and helping it keep pace with its Power Five Conference peers.

The “Pac-12 NewCo” plan was introduced to the conference presidents and chancellors at their mid-November meeting and was subsequently discussed in a conference call in December, per sources. Private investors would own 10 percent equity in the newly formed entity in exchange for a $500 million investment.

A six-page document obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive outlines the plan presented by conference commissioner Larry Scott to his bosses during the November meeting of the “Pac-12 CEO Group.”

The document outlines the conference’s current lagging media rights projections and introduces an ambitious plan that involves taking on a strategic private investor.

See for yourself:

3 Pac-12 documents

The Pac-12 members currently operate at a financial disadvantage to its peers. The Southeastern Conference, for example, distributed $11 million more than the Pac-12 to each of its members in the last fiscal year. The Big Ten’s new media rights deal will give each of its conference members more than $15 million in excess of what the Pac-12 will distribute to the universities it represents.

Under the “Pac-12 NewCo” plan, a cash infusion of $500 million would be available for immediate distribution to the Pac-12 members.

The conference’s broadcast rights, sponsorship rights, merchandising and all other commercial assets would be consolidated under the umbrella of “Pac-12 NewCo.” The conference would retain 90 percent of the equity.

When contacted for comment, Andrew Walker, head of communications for the Pac-12 Conference, said the conference regularly evaluates proposals and considers strategic options to maximize value for members.

Wrote Walker in an email: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment publicly on the nature of these discussions.”

The strategic plan documents include a chart outlining the current and projected media-rights distributions. It reads, “based on the Pac-12’s current media rights deals and making conservative assumptions going forward, we estimate that a Capitalized NewCo could be valued at approximately $5 billion to $8.5 billion.”

The projections, however, include $36 million in annual revenue from DirecTV beginning in 2020 and a one-time payment in 2024 from ESPN in the amount of $347 million. Neither is certain. Also, the plan assumes FOX would renew its current broadcast contract with the Pac-12 in a 10-year deal worth more than $2 billion.

A four-part series that ran in The Oregonian in November outlined the disparity in expenses and distributions between the Pac-12 and its Power Five Conference peers. The Pac-12 is generating less revenue than others and its expenses are far higher.

The Big Ten’s successful sale of its Tier 1 media rights will put its distributions to members at more than $50 million each once it kicks in.

The SEC distributed $41 million to each member in the last fiscal year and has now hired Evolution Media and Creative Artists Agency to help negotiate its television deals, which expire in 2023.

“More than ever before, SEC fans have greater access to view Conference programming as a result of the SEC’s existing broadcast agreements and the development of new technology,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in the release.

The Pac-12 current television rights contracts expire in 2024.