New reporting shows Pac-12 died because CEO Group didn’t grasp the situation
If you follow the Pac-12 on a regular basis, and if you have come here to Trojans Wire for realignment content, you probably know how the conference collapsed. The Pac-12 had a media rights offer from ESPN in 2022 which would have paid out $30 million per school to the 10 schools left after USC and UCLA bolted for the Big Ten.
We have collected various other details from reportage by John Canzano and Jon Wilner, plus statements from former television executives, which explain how the Pac-12 died.
One of the juicy details involved was that one Pac-12 president reportedly pushed for a higher dollar figure for the media rights deal. Given how much Arizona State truly didn’t want to leave the Pac-12, we speculated that the “unknown president” might have been in Tempe.
That did not turn out to be the case.
What is also emerging, however, is that one school president didn’t torpedo the ESPN deal last year. It was a collective effort in which the Pac-12 CEO Group couldn’t reach agreement and put up a united front.
Fresh reporting has unearthed the fuller picture of how the Pac-12 couldn’t get its act together in a moment of crisis:
(h/t John Canzano — subscription required)
We went behind the paywall for Canzano’s article and will share some of his important findings below:
UTAH PRESIDENT STATEMENT
Utah president Taylor Randall spoke about the demise of the Pac-12 and the collapse of the media rights deal:
“The Pac-12 Presidents and Chancellors worked collectively in pursuit of a new media rights agreement,” Randall began. “Though an offer was made by one of our media partners, we elected to take the rights to market to get the best deal. Throughout the process, many of the CEOs — including myself — pushed to ensure that the conference was aggressive to secure the very best agreement we could. Several conference schools retained their own consultants to value the league, which resulted in a range of estimations. It is my understanding that any mention of $50 million, which was higher than any valuation, was only as a potential starting point in negotiations to help get us to the estimated true value.”
GEORGE KLIAVKOFF MISPLAYED
Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff played a part in allowing the Pac-12 to crumble. Per Canzano, “One Pac-12 president told me Kliavkoff and Sports Media Advisors completely misplayed the $50 million counteroffer: ‘The instructions were to negotiate. This wasn’t supposed to be a “take your ball and go home” scenario.’”
COMMUNICATION FAILURE
Canzano reported that Utah President Taylor Randall wanted to be more involved with the negotiations, but that Kliavkoff didn’t allow that to take place. It does raise the point that lines of communication were not as clear or as streamlined as they should have been.
ALL ARE TO BLAME
The reality is that all of the presidents misplayed this situation.
Canzano wrote that “More presidents should have spoken up, objected, demanded clarity from Kliavkoff, and insisted that his boutique consulting firm work with one of the industry leaders. Instead, they treated the media-rights negotiation like it was a committee hearing on a campus construction project.”
PAC-2 SHOWING ITS WORTH
The two remaining programs in the Pac-2 are Oregon State and Washington State, and both were ranked until the Cougars lost to UCLA. The fact that the Pac-2 has played well this season adds to the sense of sadness that the Pac-12 was allowed to die.
EVERYBODY WANTED PAC-12 TO LAST
UCLA and USC departing is viewed by many as the true moment the Pac-12 died, but the past year shows there was a real desire to save the conference. The relevant administrators were simply incompetent in the process of trying to keep everything together. This outcome was always possible but not inevitable.
KLIAVKOFF'S FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
To put it simply, George Kliavkoff failed the Pac-12 by misplaying the entire situation. The CEO Group, however, didn’t seem to understand that leaving Kliavkoff on an island during negotiations was a situation set up to fail. Kliavkoff and the CEOs both needed to be part of media rights negotiations. That they weren’t is a failure on both sides.
LA SCHOOLS DEPARTING WAS A WARNING
Canzano wrote that “The presidents and chancellors should have recognized the departures of the LA schools and this media-rights negotiation threatened their existence. They should have treated it as such.”
There wasn’t enough urgency in response to this development, and the CEOs didn’t downgrade their media rights valuation of Pac-12 football when USC and UCLA left.
STRONG PAC-12
To make things worse, this could very well be the best season in Pac-12 football history. George Kliavkoff has to be sitting down thinking what could have been.
PRESIDENTS DIDN'T ACTUALLY THINK $50 MILLION PER SCHOOL WAS REALISTIC
The presidents didn’t truly think the $50 million per school figure was realistic, which speaks to a breakdown in communications and a lack of a unified, coherent strategy.
Canzano wrote:
“Ana Mari Cauce, Washington’s president, wrote me a letter last week. Cauce said that she didn’t ‘believe many of us expected that we would obtain a basic media-rights offer of $50 million, regardless of what counteroffer was proposed.’”
Great job, everyone.
