Pac-12 Conference Commissioner George Kliavkoff has been noticeably quiet, working in the background while the football season starts and the landscape of college sports continues to shift. Kliavkoff had no real chance to prevent USC and UCLA from leaving for the Big Ten, much as he had no real chance to undo Larry Scott’s disastrous Pac-12 Network television arrangement.
The fact that USC-Oregon State is on Pac-12 Network is not something Kliavkoff is responsible for. The structure of the TV allotments, guiding which networks get to pick certain games, was not something which could have been unwound in one year. Kliavkoff likely needed at least three years to do something about that. He is, on so many fronts, inheriting the mess Larry Scott left behind.
Kliavkoff is obviously very busy, but he realized he needed to get out in public and reassure member schools while charting a path forward for the Pac-12. He talked to John Canzano and Jon Wilner on a podcast released earlier this week.
Let’s take you through what Kliavkoff said, noting that some of the comments below can be found at John Canzano’s Substack.
You can listen to the full podcast from Canzano and Wilner.