If you have lived long enough, you have probably met at least one person who has crazy, outside-the-box ideas. Whether it’s an inventor with all sorts of concepts for new products, or a consultant who insists on being unconventional at every turn, or an ideological true believer with novel theories of politics, there’s at least one person we come across who is out in left field and has a drastically different take on a lot of topics.
If that person is a close friend or relative, we will listen to that person so as to not alienate him or her, but there’s a huge difference between listening and — on the other hand — taking that kind of person’s ideas seriously.
Guess what? The Pac-12 took that person’s ideas seriously … and the conference is on its deathbed as a result.
Brady McCollough of the Los Angeles Times came out with a well-reported, highly-sourced examination of the collapse of the Pac-12 on Wednesday. There are several stories we need to share with you from that report, but the biggest one is that the Pac-12 listened to a wacky fringe professor with a crazy idea. George Kliavkoff, instead of asserting himself as a leader who told the Pac-12 CEO Group what had to be done in a time of crisis, allowed one university president and professor to derail the deal which would have saved the conference.
Plenty of people within the Pac-12 Conference have their suspicions about the identity of the professor (and school) involved, but it will be interesting to see if today’s inclinations and thoughts are confirmed — or refuted — in subsequent days and weeks.
You can’t make this stuff up. Let’s dive into the details: