Colorado is impatient, so George Kliavkoff has only one chess move left
There is really only one move left for George Kliavkoff to make. The question is whether he has the skill and the finesse to pull it off.
You can imagine how frantic and hectic Kliavkoff’s life is right now, on the evening of Wednesday, July 26, 2023. His position as Pac-12 commissioner is truly at stake.
If the conference dies, he’s out of a job. More than that, he will go down in history as the man who failed to keep the Pac-12 together and, ultimately, in existence. No one wants that on his career biography, so if Kliavkoff wants to save everything, including the Pac-12, there’s only one thing he needs to focus on in the next 12 to 20 hours, before Colorado’s board of regents meets to discuss a probable move to the Big 12.
Let’s go through the plot points attached to this one final rescue plan for the Pac-12:
THE DEAL, GEORGE
It starts with this: Colorado has clearly run out of patience with the Pac-12. If Colorado’s first preference was to leave for the Big 12, it would have done so months ago. It didn’t.
What Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 CEO Group failed to grasp is that patience has a limit. Colorado has had enough.
Kliavkoff can’t tell Colorado to wait a little longer. He needs a deal. Now.
ESPN HONESTY
If Kliavkoff and ESPN seemed close to a deal at times and if ESPN wanted Colorado and the Pac-12 to wait, Kliavkoff has to get on the horn with Bristol/Disney and say he needs a deal right now. No footdragging.
Keep in mind that with Fox committed to the Big Ten, ESPN should naturally be the Pac-12’s main TV partner. If haggling over the price point is a concern, Kliavkoff needs to find the most manageable middle ground possible.
APPLE AND AMAZON
Kliavkoff has to seal a deal with Apple and/or Amazon. It was long believed the Pac-12 would have a linear TV deal and a digital rights package. Kliavkoff has to wrap it up and have a firm package to present to Colorado Thursday morning.
THE OTHER PIECE
If there was going to be a linear TV piece and a digitial/streaming piece, there was also a third piece we weren’t sure of. This could have been the hold up to a deal. Kliavkoff can’t play nice here. If he wanted a deal with the CW, the WB or Ion Television, he can’t wait. He has to close the sale.
INVITE SAN DIEGO STATE
Kliavkoff said the Pac-12 would sign the grant of rights and finalize the rights deal, and then — later — worry about expansion.
He can’t do that now.
He needs to do all three things together. He needs to give Colorado San Diego State — signed, sealed and delivered.
PAY SAN DIEGO STATE'S PENALTY FEES
Pay San Diego State’s Mountain West exit fees. Negotiate a possible payment plan with the Mountain West. These matters have surely been discussed and thought about. It’s time to move very swiftly in this moment of crisis.
INVITE SMU
No more waiting. Invite SMU. Give Colorado the 12-team Pac-12 and a 12-team television deal with all those added dollars. Finish.
STICKING POINTS
If there are any sticking points in any potential deals — with ESPN, with Apple, with Amazon, with The CW — Kliavkoff is not in a position to be too choosy. Was he thinking he had the leverage? He never did. Now he has to be sober and realistic about cutting deals. There’s no more time to waste.
EXPANSION HEADACHE
If Kliavkoff viewed expansion as such a headache that he wanted it to be third in the process after the grant of rights and the TV deal, he has to see now — maybe too late! — that because he delayed on inviting San Diego State and SMU, he might now lose Colorado and maybe more. It was always misguided to put expansion on the back-burner instead of as a concurrent goal alongside the GOR and the media rights deal.
SENSE OF TIMING
Kliavkoff and Pac-12 insiders felt “no timeline pressure” during this process. It always seemed so detached from reality, given that securing a deal and securing the future of the conference were survival goals. This wasn’t about becoming the top Power Five conference in the country or competing on the same footing as the SEC or Big Ten. This was about staying alive, remaining in existence. The Pac-12 did not have the leverage here. Accordingly, surviving — doing what was necessary as opposed to trying for a moonshot-type deal — was the first priority. Kliavkoff and the presidents never really seemed to grasp that.
LEVERAGE
Greg Sankey has leverage in a negotiation. The Big Ten has leverage in a negotiation. The Pac-12 did not and does not. Survive now and try to gain leverage for the next round of media rights in 2030-2031. That always should have been the goal for the Pac-12. If it meant getting a few million dollars less than hoped for (2 to 3 million), that probably would have been enough to keep Colorado happy. The absence of any deal at all made CU restless and impatient.
George Kliavkoff did not read the room. Neither did he understand leverage in all of this.
He gets one final chance to make amends … but he has less than 24 hours, by all appearances, maybe 48 maximum.
Better act quickly, George.
