Tag: George Kliavkoff

George Kliavkoff out as Pac-12 commissioner, inviting the question of what’s next

Will there be another commissioner, or was George Kliavkoff the last Pac-12 commish in history?

George Kliavkoff will not be the commissioner of the Pac-12 in March. His tenure will end in February, ending a story marked by failure, flops, and foul-ups. Kliavkoff isn’t the man who is solely responsible for the demise of the Pac-12, but he certainly shoulders part of the blame along with Larry Scott, the Pac-12 CEO Group, and other people who made other decisions which undercut the conference in various ways over the past decade.

Kliavkoff memorably failed to get a media rights deal done which would have provided enough revenue to keep the Pac-12 intact. He was unable to earn the trust of the CEO Group, but he also didn’t insist on moving forward with certain plans and was indecisive in moments of crisis. He needed to listen to Pac-12 school presidents and chancellors, but he also needed to lead them and guide them with a strong hand in moments when he needed to take charge. Kliavkoff did inherit a huge mess from Larry Scott, and he was never dealt a strong set of cards, but he also didn’t seem to grasp the dynamics of the conference he entered. Not providing an authoritative presence was a failure of leadership, and it’s why the Pac-12 has splintered.

Kliavkoff’s exit raises natural questions about whether the Pac-12 — more specifically, the Pac-2 of Washington State and Oregon State — will seek a commissioner or will adopt a different governance and leadership model.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire. Follow our newest sites, UW Huskies Wire and UCLA Wire.

Breaking: Pac-12 to mutually part ways with commissioner George Kliavkoff

George Kliavkoff is officially out as of the end of the month.

In a not-so-shocking development, the Pac-12 Board of Directors announced on Friday that the conference and commissioner George Kliavkoff have mutually agreed to part ways. According to the release, Kliavkoff will officially end his run as commissioner on Feb. 29, 2024.

Kliavkoff joined the conference to succeed outgoing commissioner Larry Scott on May 13, 2021, and officially took over on Jul. 1, 2021. He was tasked with finding a new media rights deal for the conference, which ultimately led to his undoing. Ten of the remaining 12 members decided to leave for the ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten starting on Jul. 1, 2024.

This left the conference with just two schools, Oregon State and Washington State University.

As the release indicated, the Pac-12 will announce more details about the new leadership the following week.

The Pac-12 has been involved in legal battles over the financials with the two remaining schools fighting to maintain control of the assets despite the 10 other teams leaving for greener pastures. Kliavkoff sealed his fate when he sat idle as the college football world were busy making moves to strengthen their conferences, while the Pac-12 imploded.

College Sports Wire will continue to provide updates as they are made available in regards to the Pac-12 and its future.

New revelations should help Washington State, Oregon State in Pac-12 litigation

Wazzu and Oregon State believe they should have control of #Pac12 assets. New developments appear to bolster their case.

Washington State and Oregon State received what appears to be very good news for the two schools in their legal fight against the Pac-12 Conference.

Without going too deep into the weeds, WSU and OSU — the so-called “Pac-2” — filed a lawsuit against the Pac-12. The purpose of the lawsuit is to gain control of the Pac-12’s assets, given that the other 10 members — by leaving the conference for other conferences — have relinquished the right to sit on the board and thereby have any rights to those assets.

Relinquishing their spots on the board — Washington State and Oregon State have argued — cuts off the 10 departing schools from having any say in conference matters. It prevents them from being able to claim any portion of Pac-12 revenues attached to bowl game and NCAA Tournament distributions, among many other things.

The big news is that Washington State and Oregon State just gained a much stronger legal position due to a sworn statement from Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, unearthed by Jon Wilner of the Wilner Hotline.

“Weeks before the Pac-12’s collapse, Kliavkoff issued a sworn statement to San Francisco Superior Court in which he stated that UCLA and USC had, in fact, already relinquished their board positions after announcing they would be joining the Big Ten,” Wilner wrote.

That statement by Kliavkoff was a declaration to the court filed on July 12. The key portion of the statement is as follows:

“The University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California, are no longer among the member institutions represented on the Board of Directors.”

In September of this year (one month ago), Kliavkoff attempted to convene all of the current Pac-12 presidents and chancellors. That’s when Washington State and Oregon State stepped in and filed their lawsuit, claiming that only they had any say in conference business and any control over conference assets. The point WSU and OSU were making: Leaving for another conference created an automatic trigger which removed those schools from the Pac-12 board. Leaving was tantamount to a declaration of departure from the conference.

This sworn statement from Kliavkoff appears to affirm the legal argument Washington State and Oregon State were making all along.

A hearing on this matter is scheduled in Whitman County (Washington) Court for November 14.

If Wazzu and OSU win in court, the schools would presumably gain control of Pac-12 assets and could invite a large number of Mountain West schools into a reconstituted Pac-12 Conference. The key point is that WSU and OSU would be able to retain Pac-12 New Year’s Six bowl and NCAA Tournament distributions, shared with the new members of the Pac-12 Conference. At least, that would be the likely plan for the Cougars and Beavers.

*

Follow Fighting Irish Wire for more on Notre Dame as the Irish prepare to face USC.

Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado.

Follow Ducks Wire for coverage of Oregon football leading into the big game against Washington on October 14.

Prominent Pac-12 sports journalist thinks USC is likely to fire Alex Grinch before season’s end.

USC and Lincoln Riley need to have a plan in place if Alex Grinch coaches poorly and loses to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator might actually be worse than Alex Grinch, a fascinating plot point heading into the October 14 renewal of Irish-Trojans.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality against Notre Dame and Utah.

Colorado success under Deion Sanders shows how much George Kliavkoff, Pac-12 fumbled the bag

Colorado is the hot item in CFB. @60Minutes interviewed him a 2nd time in two years. CU is setting TV records. If only the #Pac12 had kept Colorado happy.

It has to be killing George Kliavkoff that he will get only one year of Deion Sanders at Colorado. For only one year will the Pac-12 get dramatically increased eyeballs on its football product thanks to Coach Prime and his big-time Buffaloes, who have instantly become a box office attraction in college football.

Deion Sanders is such a hot item in the media sphere that CBS’s 60 Minutes program has sought him out for a second interview in two years. The show interviewed him one year ago when he was at Jackson State. As interviewer Jon Wertheim said in introducing this past Sunday’s second Deion segment, it’s rare for 60 Minutes to return to the same public figure so quickly. Usually, that’s not how it’s done.

There’s nothing usual about Deion Sanders himself, or about the things he is doing at Colorado.

The Pac-12 would have had a long-term goldmine on its hands, with CU’s ability to get eyeballs. Alas, Kliavkoff failed to exhibit strong leadership and tell the Pac-12 CEO Group it needed to accept ESPN’s 2022 deal which would have paid out $30 million per school. That deal would have kept the conference together. It would have given ESPN consistent and reliable inventory. It would have given the Pac-12 the stability it needed to withstand the gut punch of seeing USC and UCLA leave for the Big Ten.

Instead, here we are, witnessing the death of the Pac-12 while its football product gains huge new degrees of popularity and national attention.

What a waste.

There’s more to this story about Deion Sanders’ success at Colorado, starting with the TV ratings for CU’s recent win over Colorado State. We have the details below:

Pac-12, George Kliavkoff allowed themselves to be strong-armed by a professor

An @LATimesSports report details how one school president and professor derailed the deal which would have saved the #Pac12.

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:

Big 12’s Brett Yormark detailed what he told Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff after poaching teams

That had to be awkward.

The latest round of conference realignment saw transformational movement that effectively ended the Pac-12 Conference’s standing as a viable league, and the Big 12 was a major player in that.

The Big 12, of course, reacquired Colorado for the 2024-25 school year before eventually convincing Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to come along amid Oregon and Washington’s move to the Big Ten. When all was said and done, the Pac-12 was left with just four schools for 2024 (Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State).

So, you’d think that the vibe between conference commissioners Brett Yormark (Big 12) and George Kliavkoff (Pac-12) would be incredibly awkward with even some animosity. After all, Kliavkoff was brought in to secure the Pac-12’s future with a media rights deal and failed spectacularly to Yormark’s benefit. But according to Yorkmark, his interactions with Kliavkoff have been fine.

Speaking to Andrew Marchand and John Ourand, Yormark claimed that he had a friendly discussion with Kliavkoff and actually looked forward to seeing him in person in a couple weeks. Via sportsbusinessjournal.com:

Yormark said his main message was to convey that he was sorry to put Pac-12 chief George Kliavkoff in a tough position, “But this was something that we had to do. And this was something that the board and our key stakeholders encouraged. I’m sorry that my gain is your loss,” Yormark said. “We had a very collegial conversation. George was fantastic, and I’ll be seeing him again in a couple of weeks at some industry meetings.”

It would be interesting to hear if Kliavkoff felt the same way. But let’s be honest, Kliavkoff would have done the same thing if roles were reversed. That’s just the nature of conference realignment, and a highly paid commissioner can’t be too upset about how matters played out.

Still, that conversation had to be difficult for Kliavkoff.

New USC YouTube show identifies key reasons the Pac-12 died

.@LBCTrojan has a new #USC show at the @VoiceOfCFB. He notes a key moment in March of 2017 which led to the #Pac12’s death.

Rick Anaya is the co-host with Tim Prangley of Trojan Conquest Live, one of multiple shows on the USC channel at The Voice of College Football. You can watch Rick and Tim on Sundays and can soon catch them on the USC football postgame show, following each Trojan football game this season. The first USC postgame show will be right after the San Jose State game on August 26.

Rick Anaya wanted to create his own standalone USC show in addition to Trojan Conquest Live. He unveiled his new YouTube show last week, called “Trojans Talk On Tap.”

In this premier episode, Rick traces the timeline of events which led to the death of the Pac-12 as we know it. You’re aware of a lot of these events, so we’re not going to lay out the full list of important moments. We will, however, mention one event Rick brought up. It’s an overlooked moment which caused the Pac-12’s eventual destruction.

Rick very astutely pointed out the three-year contract extension the Pac-12 CEO Group gave to Larry Scott in March of 2017. Scott had utterly whiffed on getting the Pac-12 Network a DirecTV deal and other deals on visible distribution platforms. His Pac-12 Network dream had essentially died. The plan, the vision, for maximizing revenue through Pac-12 Network had failed.

There was no good reason to give Scott that three-year extension. One year later, in 2018, the Pac-12 (led by Scott) rejected ESPN’s offer to take over distribution of the Pac-12 Network. Those two events are linked, and they are central to the death of the Pac-12. Rick delivered a very smart, thoughtful overview of how the Pac-12 arrived at this disastrous state of affairs.

Be on the lookout for the next episode of “Trojans Talk On Tap” with Rick Anaya, and be sure to subscribe to, like, and share the USC YouTube channel at The Voice of College Football.

[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696092235]

Pac-12 presidents, George Kliavkoff ignored widely available industry expertise

In July of 2022, after USC left for the #B1G, a consultant estimated a #Pac12 media deal could get $30M per school. He was ignored.

You know by now that the Pac-12 presidents rejected a 2022 offer by ESPN which, if accepted, would have paid out $30 million per school and likely saved the conference. That’s really bad. It’s yet another embarrassment for a conference which is on its last legs and has been reduced to just four schools.

Yet, it gets worse. It always gets worse in the Pac-12. This is how the conference operates. There are always a few more details which make a bad situation even more embarrassing than we all appreciated 24 or 48 hours earlier.

The latest damning details come from Pac-12 insider John Canzano. In his report about longtime sports executive and administrator Oliver Luck being brought in as a consultant to the remaining Pac-4 schools, Canzano also included some notes on a media industry expert the Pac-12 presidents very clearly ignored over the past 13 months.

We have details on that and a lot more below. It’s going to be even more of a headache, but you have to read these details to get an even fuller picture of how badly the Pac-12 presidents messed up:

Pac-12 died because its presidents refused to help USC or acknowledge Trojans’ real value

#Pac12 presidents wouldn’t give #USC an extra revenue share. Then they overestimated the league’s value without USC. Amateur hour.

The Pac-12 presidents, as you know by now, rejected a 2022 ESPN offer that would have paid out $30 million per year to each member school.

That deal would have saved the conference. It would have represented a highly competitive price point when measured against the $31.7 million figure the Big 12 gained for its member schools.

Remember: The Big 12 lost Texas and Oklahoma. Coming in at $31.7 million without those two huge brand names was a legitimate achievement for Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark. Everyone in college sports was impressed Yormark got that much money for his conference with Texas and Oklahoma out of the picture.

The Pac-12 presidents obviously believed that with USC gone, the conference was still worth a lot more than ESPN or the market indicated. The presidents didn’t seem to factor the absence of USC into their calculations. They disregarded the importance of the USC football brand and how much that meant to the conference.

Keep in mind: This was not the first time Pac-12 presidents fatally underappreciated USC’s value to the conference.

During Larry Scott’s tenure — when the seeds of the Pac-12’s destruction were planted — the conference refused to give the Trojans an extra revenue share that would have kept them happy as a conference member. This was a known issue. The conference refused to do anything about it. When George Kliavkoff took over from Larry Scott in 2021, he did not have enough time to mend this fractured situation. USC left one year after Kliavkoff took over.

Now we can see Pac-12 presidents continued to dismiss USC’s real value to the conference. Here we are, with the Pac-12 lying in ruins.

USC fans and other national observers were quick to notice how losing the Los Angeles TV market seemed to have no effect on the Pac-12’s calculations, leading to the disastrous decision to reject ESPN’s 2022 media deal: