Tag: larry scott

Pac-12 athletes publish set of demands to Larry Scott and the league

Pac-12 student-athletes are making demands from the conference or they won’t play this fall.

(This was originally published by Matt Zemek on Trojans Wire.)

This had been brewing for weeks if not months. A lot of chatter had circulated throughout the Pac-12 that a group of athletes in the conference was preparing to either make demands of the conference or protest the attempt to play a 2020 sports season, if not both. Former Arizona State Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter was reportedly helping a group of athletes in formulating a specific approach toward a public action of some kind.

While Carpenter’s level of involvement is unclear, a group of Pac-12 athletes — the size and scope are currently unknown as of 10:35 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday — have finally put forth a public statement in the Players Tribune. You can have a look at the full article. 

Pac-12 expert Jon Wilner offered a good one-tweet summation:

So, you might be asking yourself and your friends: “What does this mean?”

It is the question I am asking myself. It is the question everyone is asking.

What is my initial response?

As I get older, and as I write more about sports — and as I see how politically tumultuous American politics have become — one of the central lessons I have learned as a news analyst is to withhold immediate judgment unless I have complete confidence in a given outcome. I find that it is generally best to admit I don’t know the answer if I can’t really nail it down on all (or most) fronts.

Such is the case here.

Sure, this COULD turn out to be a game-changer on so many levels. It COULD carry a lot of impact.

Yet, Saturday night brought about a lot of murmurings that the Power Five conferences might break away from the NCAA:

 

Who would take that seriously, at least right now?

The Power Five conferences couldn’t coordinate nonconference games among each other, so how would they possibly be able to coordinate the current set of NCAA-run sports championships on their own? It makes absolutely no sense in the current climate. A million other things would have to happen first for that to become a realistic possibility.

So, back to this Pac-12 athlete story. Does it mean the game has changed and that massive upheaval is just around the bend?

You would probably like an answer to that question from me or anyone else who covers college sports. Well, I’m here to tell you that the answer can’t really be known yet. Other things have to happen. It might be an unsatisfying answer, but many times in life, the unsatisfying answer is PRECISELY the answer citizens need if they want to get the straight story.

The bottom line, though — something which points to a direct answer instead of “I don’t know” — is as follows: The extent to which this player movement will change college sports (and/or affect the 2020-2021 sports cycle, including college basketball and baseball and all the other sports) will be connected to the extent players are willing to continue or intensify their protests.

If Pac-12 (and maybe other college) athletes are really willing to see this through, and not relent in their public pressure — if they have the stomach to keep pushing for a long time — this story will mean a lot.

If the athletes think this public presentation of demands is most or all of what they need to do to get the Pac-12 and college sports to change, this story probably won’t mean very much in the end.

Pac-12 athletes publish set of demands to Larry Scott and the league

Huge news.

This had been brewing for weeks if not months. A lot of chatter had circulated throughout the Pac-12 that a group of athletes in the conference was preparing to either make demands of the conference or protest the attempt to play a 2020 sports season, if not both. Former Arizona State Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter was reportedly helping a group of athletes in formulating a specific approach toward a public action of some kind.

While Carpenter’s level of involvement is unclear, a group of Pac-12 athletes — the size and scope are currently unknown as of 10:35 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday — have finally put forth a public statement in the Players Tribune. You can have a look at the full article. 

Pac-12 expert Jon Wilner offered a good one-tweet summation:

So, you might be asking yourself and your friends: “What does this mean?”

It is the question I am asking myself. It is the question everyone is asking.

What is my initial response?

As I get older, and as I write more about sports — and as I see how politically tumultuous American politics have become — one of the central lessons I have learned as a news analyst is to withhold immediate judgment unless I have complete confidence in a given outcome. I find that it is generally best to admit I don’t know the answer if I can’t really nail it down on all (or most) fronts.

Such is the case here.

Sure, this COULD turn out to be a game-changer on so many levels. It COULD carry a lot of impact.

Yet, Saturday night brought about a lot of murmurings that the Power Five conferences might break away from the NCAA:

Who would take that seriously, at least right now?

The Power Five conferences couldn’t coordinate nonconference games among each other, so how would they possibly be able to coordinate the current set of NCAA-run sports championships on their own? It makes absolutely no sense in the current climate. A million other things would have to happen first for that to become a realistic possibility.

So, back to this Pac-12 athlete story. Does it mean the game has changed and that massive upheaval is just around the bend?

You would probably like an answer to that question from me or anyone else who covers college sports. Well, I’m here to tell you that the answer can’t really be known yet. Other things have to happen. It might be an unsatisfying answer, but many times in life, the unsatisfying answer is PRECISELY the answer citizens need if they want to get the straight story.

The bottom line, though — something which points to a direct answer instead of “I don’t know” — is as follows: The extent to which this player movement will change college sports (and/or affect the 2020-2021 sports cycle, including college basketball and baseball and all the other sports) will be connected to the extent players are willing to continue or intensify their protests.

If Pac-12 (and maybe other college) athletes are really willing to see this through, and not relent in their public pressure — if they have the stomach to keep pushing for a long time — this story will mean a lot.

If the athletes think this public presentation of demands is most or all of what they need to do to get the Pac-12 and college sports to change, this story probably won’t mean very much in the end.

Much more on this story is coming your way at Trojans Wire.

Big Sky commissioner levels valid charge against Larry Scott

Larry Scott, again, fails the leadership test.

In a conversation with Pac-12 journalist and commentator John Canzano of Oregon Live, Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill offered remarks on various subjects connected to the loss of football games against Pac-12 opponents. The Big Sky joins the Mountain West in possibly losing revenue — or at the very least, needing litigation to fight for that revenue — due to the Pac-12’s recent decision to move to a conference-only game schedule.

Observers have various views on the Pac-12’s decision, which followed the Big Ten’s decision to move to a conference-only schedule. Wistrcill’s comments to Canzano might reshape some of those opinions.

One set of remarks in particular do not look good at all for Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott.

You can listen to their full conversation here.

Here, below is the relevant segment of Canzano’s article on his discussion with Wistrcill:

“Portland State had non-conference football games scheduled at Arizona (Sept. 5) and at Oregon State (Sept. 19). Those two now-cancelled games would have provided $950,000 in guaranteed compensation to the PSU athletic department budget.

“Wistrcill said he was particularly frustrated that the Pac-12 and others canceled the non-conference games without offering a chance to meet Pac-12 COVID-19 testing standards.

“’I think a lot has been made for the different testing procedures for the virus and how teams are going to prepare for that,’ he said. ‘I think it was disappointing that we weren’t even given the opportunity to meet the standards they set (for testing). Set the money aside, those games are good for everybody.’”

“Wistrcill said he’s done a lot of thinking about the safety of games.

“’I can make the case that it’s safer for Portland State to play Oregon State than it is for Oregon State to play UCLA. Safer for Idaho to play Washington State than it is for Washington State to play Arizona State. It wasn’t surprising that it happened with the Pac-12 after the Big Ten made the decision. They do lots of things together,’ he said. ‘I was disappointed that our schools didn’t even get a chance to try and meet the standards.’”

It’s not a complicated point to grasp: The Pac-12 might have had perfectly good reasons to use a conference-only schedule, but whatever decision it made, it should have at least allowed other affected parties to put forth a plan.

Realize this: The other Power Five conferences — the Big 12, ACC, and SEC — are likely to attempt to play at least one nonconference game if not more. The Pac-12’s stance toward the Big Sky, plus the Mountain West and other conferences affected by the Pac-12’s schedule adjustment, will look different — read: worse — if the Big 12, ACC, and SEC do indeed schedule nonconference games AND manage to play them this fall.

Heckuva job, Larry… as usual.

Chances of college football in the fall are dwindling

With recent announcements by the Ivy League, PAC 12 and Big Ten Conferences, it feels like the idea of football in the fall is a long shot.

It has been a total of 121 days since the sports world came to a stand still. A total of four months since any athletic competitions have taken place on the Forty Acres or ones that have involved the University of Texas. The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were cancelled. As were the NCAA tournaments to crown new national champions. The Longhorns promising start in baseball was halted. The historic start by the Texas Longhorns women’s softball team interrupted.

The hope was that after those four months that we might see the Texas Longhorns football team take the field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 5th. The chances of that opening kickoff against the South Florida Bulls seems like the longest of longshots with each passing day. While other countries are seeing a return to their sports leagues, football doesn’t feel like much of a possibility.

Each day there has been news about conference leadership having meetings about how sports can return with the health and safety of the athletes and staff in mind. However, when the Big Ten cancelled all non-conference games more doubt started to creep in. Not to mention that came off the heels of the Ivy League cancelling all fall sports. Then the PAC 12 and ACC were both rumored to follow the lead of the Big Ten.

“One thing we have to realize that this is not a fait accompli that we’re gonna have sports in the fall,” Warren said. “We may not have sports in the fall. We may not have a college football season in the Big Ten.” – USA TODAY Sports via the Detroit Free Press

Hope. It is something that we have all held on to for the last several months. Trying to go about a semblance of a normal life believing that we could very well have football. Was it having faith that sports would return or was it being naive? If the commissioner of a major conference doesn’t believe that we will have sports, why should we? It didn’t stop with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren either.

The SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has yet to make a decision on cancelling non-conference games. However, his recent statement echoed the sentiment of Warren. Sankey stated his concern for football this fall as “high to very high” according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.

“We are running out of time to correct and get things right.”

The PAC 12 followed the decision to cancel the non-conference games and it was recently reported commissioner Larry Scott tested positive for COVID-19. It almost feels impossible that we do see football and while others have come to grips with that idea, some of us held onto hope.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been bullish on the idea of playing football this fall and it starting on time. That was his stance back in late May. A little over a month later, is he still feeling that way? In response to the two conferences that have announced the changes to their schedules, if feels as if Bowlsby is in no hurry to make a decision.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports recently published an article discussing where Bowlsby currently sits.

“We need to do what our doctors and our scientists are telling us, which is move slowly ahead and constantly reevaluate,” Bowlsby told CBS Sports on Thursday. “The virus is going to decide whether we’re ready and able to play.”

He goes on to say that the Big 12 commissioner wasn’t happy with the quick decision from Warren. In a time where all the power five schools should be in unison, they are very much operating on their own.

“[Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren] never gave any indication that this is what they were going to do,” Bowlsby said. “In fact, he told us this morning at some length that he was not going to surprise anybody and that he would get to us in advance.”

Bob Bowlsby and the Big 12 are aiming for a concrete decision in late July. That deadline would put them just over five weeks away from the start of the college football season.

Power 5 administrator on college football starting on time: ‘Everyone is pessimistic’

One Power 5 administrator says everyone is not exactly sure that college football will happen on time this fall.

On Wednesday, the Ivy League announced that it will not be holding any fall events. It seems that might be the case for more conferences to come, per 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello.

“Everyone is pessimistic,” in regards to an on-time start to the season, one Power 5 administrator told 247Sports this week.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still hitting parts of the nation, including the Southeast, hard, the idea that playing college football this fall is becoming one less that seems reasonable.

“We said from the onset of this pandemic that circumstances around the virus would guide our decision-making, and it is clear recent developments related to COVID-19 have not been trending in the right direction,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “There are important decisions to be made in the coming weeks and by late July there should be more clarity about the fall season. In the meantime, our athletics programs will continue to effectively manage the health and safety of our student-athletes as they continue voluntary activities on their respective campuses.”

From Marcello:

“Several conferences will utilize as much time as possible before making decisions throughout the fall. The SEC is expected to make a decision on whether to continue the season as planned in late July or early August, but they are not expected to entertain a full cancellation of fall sports as early as August, a source said. Most Power 5 conferences are willing to wait until the 11th hour and re-evaluate circumstances on a week-to-week basis through the fall, though many within the conference offices, particularly in the ACC, Pac-12 and SEC, have questioned the logistics of keeping players on campus if the season is delayed more than once.

“As it relates to thresholds of numbers of teams to conduct a season, we have modeled out many different scenarios for conducting a season but have not set thresholds in this regard,” Larry Scott said of the Pac-12

Meanwhile, on the ground, FBS schools continue to fight the virus on campuses that resemble ghost towns without student populations. Some athletic programs have been successful maintaining a bubble (Notre Dame has one positive test among 252 COVID-19 tests conducted within its athletics department since mid-June) while others shut down team activities (Kansas, Kansas State, Houston and Boise State) amid small outbreaks.

Optimism ebbs and flows.

“It depends on the week,” said a Power 5 head coach requesting anonymity. “I’m trying to stay positive and keep our guys safe and healthy right now.””

The upcoming weeks are going to be extremely important for whether we see our favorite teams take the field on time in September.

A decade later: How Texas squashed the PAC 16 Conference

Texas could have joined the Pac 10 and made a super conference. Instead, they stayed true to the Big 12 and cashed in on Longhorn Network.

In the summer of 2010, the Big 12 conference was in major jeopardy.

On the field, the conference’s two elite programs, Texas and Oklahoma, were coming off back-to-back national championship losses. The two schools had been taken down by SEC powerhouses Alabama and Florida respectively.

Off the field, things were even worse as there was talk of the Big 12 as people knew it dissolving.

The then Pac 10 was trying to make a push to form a new super conference, comprised of 16 members and called the Pac 16. Adding on to the 10 schools the conference was already made up of, Pac 10 commissioner Larry Scott was going after Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.

It would have set up for interesting travel destinations for visiting fans as Oklahoma fans would find themselves in Pullman, Washington, and USC’s traveling fan base would end up in Lubbock, Texas for a conference matchup.

Here is what the divisions could have shaped out in the hypothetical conference structure:

Pac 16 North Pac 16 South
California Arizona
Oregon Arizona State
Oregon State Colorado
Stanford Oklahoma
UCLA Oklahoma State
USC Texas
Washington Texas A&M
Washington State Texas Tech

Scott made his way down to the campus of each of the six schools and made his pitch. For weeks, it seemed as if everything was put in place to create the super conference but one school was causing a hold up: The University of Texas.

Colorado started what was expected to be a domino effect on June 10, accepting their invitation to the Pac 12. The school was more of a natural fit on the west coast because of their alumni location and being in the Mountain Time Zone.

One day later, Nebraska realized what was happening and jumped ship to the Big 10. Never involved in a discussion for the Pac 16, the Cornhuskers were off to a conference which also felt like a better fit, geographically and culturally.

Scott had already made his pitches to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech, making it seem as if they were just waiting for Texas to officially say they were in.

When Scott had his meeting with Texas, it was supposed to be the meeting that made the deal official. However, before he even arrived in Austin, UT Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and university President Bill Powers had made their decision: Texas would be staying in the Big 12.

According to Dodds, it came down to traveling and what it would have done to his student-athletes. Looking past football, the travel schedule for Olympic sports such as basketball, baseball, and softball would have been brutal. Having a midweek game in Seattle, Washington from Austin would have been a round trip of over 4,200 miles in just under two days.

If you were to ask other people, their answer would be different. Texas was in the midst of creating its own TV-deal and forming the Longhorn Network. Launched in August of 2011, the ESPN channel would have never been possible in the proposed Pac 16, as the conference was looking to make its own TV channel as well.

ESPN offered Texas $300 million over 20 years, coming out to be $15 million a year. The school accepted the offer and is still reaping the benefits to this day.

The creating of Longhorn Network had just as big of a ripple effect as the proposed super conference did. Texas A&M was frustrated with Texas’ creation of LHN. Mix in being fed up with years of being belittled and second in the in-state rivalry, and the Aggies wanted to disassociate themselves.

Texas A&M accepted a bid to join the SEC in 2011, ending a rivalry of 117 years. To this day, the two schools cannot agree to play each other with no end in sight. 2011 was the final time the Lone Star Showdown has taken place on a football field and it could remain as the lasting image of the rivalry for quite some time.

After an ill-advised quote from Oklahoma’s president, David Boren, Missouri also jumped ship to the SEC, leaving the Big 12 with eight members. The conference scrambled, asking TCU and West Virginia to join to bring them back to 10 members and giving us the Big 12 as we know it today.

A week after Texas’ denying the Pac 10, the conference extended a bid to the University of Utah, which was accepted to officially form the Pac 12. Scott was able to expand the conference, just not in the way he had hoped.

It would have been an interesting move to move the Pac 16, creating for some exciting football matchups and travel destinations. Texas would get to play big-name schools such as USC, UCLA, and Oregon on a yearly basis.

However, Dodds wanted to stay in the Big 12 and launch the Longhorn Network. Receiving $15 million a year for 20 years was too good of an offer to pass up.

The decision made ripple effects throughout all of college football, both on and off the field.

Since the 2009 national championship, no Big 12 school has made it back to the big game. Moving from the BCS to the College Football Playoff in 2014, the conference is the only Power Five conference who has not won a semi-final matchup. Oklahoma is the only Big 12 school to make it into the CFP but has fallen short all four times.

As for the four schools which left the Big 12, all of them have found success in their respective conferences, except Texas A&M. Colorado, Missouri, and Nebraska have all made it to their conference championship games.

Since their joining of the conference, TCU has been a staple Big 12 team on the football field. Gary Patterson’s team has won 10 or more games in three seasons while sharing the Big 12 championship with Baylor in 2014.

West Virginia has not had the same success as the Horned Frogs and their fit within the Big 12 is still debated to this day.

Who knows what could have happened had the Pac 16 been formed. The storied rivalry with Texas and Texas A&M could still be happening. Maybe the conference could have risen as the top in the country.

Sadly, we will never know what it could have looked like until there is another period of conference realignment and schools get to do it all over again.

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