The latest PAC12 media rights deal (signed 2011) actually had PAC12 setting record for highest payout. At that time they secured the largest media rights deal of any conference. So recent history (ten years ago) says that they can sign a decent media rights deal, and they're not forever doomed to mediocrity by factors outside their control. Hopefully they can start to undo some of the damage in their upcoming 2024 media rights deal but they'll need to start winning soon for that to happen, which is the biggest key here.

Part of that was obviously timing - the deal was signed right as online streaming started to take off and sporting events became much more valuable. Unfortunately the PAC12 didn't anticipate the extent to which that would be true and so locked in a price that was soon eclipsed by their peers in other conferences. They also clearly made mistakes with their use/distribution of the PAC12 network. They started a network on their own with no insight or experience on how to build one. The PAC12 leadership has, without a doubt, egregiously mismanaged the conference and hurt the overall value of the conference. But those are mistakes, or (at the least) bad judgment calls, which implies that they don't have to be made.

There's certainly a hole to dig out of, and the conference is also hindered by it's time zones, but all those same criticisms apply to BYU as well, and I still hold out hope for BYU to become more relevant, same as I do the PAC.