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Four takeaways from George Kliavkoff's first Pac-12 Media Day

July 27, 2021

LOS ANGELES — George Kliavkoff’s first football media day as Pac-12 Commissioner was a doozy.

College football has been in a news frenzy this offseason with topics like NIL, Covid-19, realignment and others on the table. Kliavkoff took firm stances on most of these issues during a 45-minute media availability that was split between his opening statement and a question and answer segment.

Here’s what we learned.

A new football working group

About a half decade ago, the Pac-12 announced a basketball strategic working group. The idea was to get more teams into the NCAA Tournament, and more into the Final Four, by any means necessary. This year, the Pac-12 had two Sweet 16 teams, an Elite Eight team and a Final Four team.

On Tuesday, Kliavkoff announced a similar strategic working group, but this time it’s for football.

“I want to be 100% clear: Going forward, the Pac-12 Conference will make all of our football-related decisions with the combined goals of optimizing CFP invitations and winning national championships,” Kliavkoff said.

The working group is comprised of all 12 Pac-12 head coaches, the athletic directors and associate commissioner Merton Hanks. It will begin meeting immediately.

“I can confirm that every decision the conference makes related to football is on the table for discussion,” Kliavkoff said. “We will look at our conference schedules, including the number of conference games that we play, and the start time of each game. We will look at our non-conference scheduling. We will evaluate whether having divisions does or does not make sense.”

So far in Kliavkoff’s tenure, it’s been clear that he’s placed football and men’s basketball above all else. They’re the two sports that contribute the most to any conference’s revenue, and an all-out push to maximize those revenues makes sense.

“It’s not a secret that these are the two most impactful sports, and that revenue generated from football and men’s basketball often funds our overall athletic programs,” Kliavkoff said.

What’s up with realignment?

If media reports are to be believed, and they probably should be, Oklahoma and Texas are leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, maybe as soon as next season.

The question now is how many other schools will be changing conferences, and will the Pac-12 be involved.

“We believe the move by Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 to the SEC strengthens our unique position as the only Power 5 conference with teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones,” Kliavkoff said. “We have a stable, highly successful, and well-positioned membership with a high bar to entry. Given our investments in football and men’s basketball, our historic domination of other sports, we do not think expansion is required to continue to compete and thrive.”

Those are some strong words.

While the SEC is expanding its lead over the rest of the country, the Big 12 is absolutely taking a step back, and figures to have fallen behind the Pac-12. I don’t think Kliavkoff is wrong.

While he said he didn’t think expansion was a must, he did leave the door open.

“That said, the fallout from Texas and Oklahoma gives us an opportunity to once again consider expansion,” Kliavkoff said. “We have already had significant inbound interest from many schools. We will work with our presidents and chancellors to evaluate these opportunities.”

During the Q&A session after his opening remarks, Kliavkoff didn’t spill much about those negotiations. One reporter brought up a new report that Texas Tech was among the schools that had reached out. Kliavkoff said nothing.

“We’re not going to talk about any individual school. We’re not going to negotiate in the media. That’s just not the way we do business.”

This was another example of the strong hand Kliavkoff was willing to use on Tuesday.

He did say, though, that there were no prerequisites for entrance into the conference. While we still expect AAU schools and secular institutions to have the best shot, nothing is out of the question right now.

When it comes to Pac-12 schools leaving the conference, there doesn’t seem to be much concern. Oregon’s athletic director Rob Mullens, who was also on the stage, answered a question about that himself.

“This league is a great league,” Mullens said. “It’s got a rich tradition for many, many years. There’s strong collaboration. We’re all committed to working together to strengthen the league, again, be prepared as the industry evolves.”

As the leader of one of the biggest brands in the conference, Mullens’ words are incredibly important.

Kliavkoff was also asked about a potential scheduling alliance with another conference. There was nearly an agreement between the Big 10 and Pac-12 about a decade ago to have rotating home-and-home series between all of the teams in the conference, but it fell through late in the process. With the SEC expanding into a super conference, now might be the time for an alliance.

“I think it’s an interesting opportunity,” he said. “It’s under discussion, but nothing to announce today.”

After hearing that answer, I think it’s absolutely more likely an alliance is on the way—probably with the Big 10—than it was before.

Kliavkoff was asked one final question, about whether there is a set calendar for expansion talks, given that Texas and Oklahoma will be moving sometime in the next one to three years.

“It is a priority to consider all of the alternatives that have been presented to us,” Kliavkoff said to cap off his time on stage. “And we will do that in a very timely manner.”

I’m calling my shot now: If the Pac-12 expands, we’ll be getting the news in the near future.

Covid isn’t quite gone yet

One of the major storylines of media day was the absence of Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich, who wasn’t allowed to attend because he has not been vaccinated against Covid-19. His reasons are still unknown.

“The decision whether he gets vaccinated or not is a private decision,” Kliavkoff said. “We don’t mandate that anyone gets vaccinated. We are not in the middle of that discussion with him. That’s not our business.”

Associate commissioner Merton Hanks, who was also on-stage, said that there will be a testing policy for Covid-19 for the 2021 season, though he added that it wouldn’t be as “robust” as last season.

“Certainly our medical advisory committee will advise us on proper procedure,” he said.

Last season, teams that didn’t have the necessary players to play a game weren’t really punished. The conference tried to reschedule the game, but if that wasn’t possible then it was considered a no contest.

This time around, teams that can’t play may not be forced to forfeit and take a loss.

“We’re considering what our forfeiture policy will be,” Kliavkoff said. “We’ll probably announce that in the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned previously in the press, we’re leaning towards going back to the pre-COVID policy of forfeits if you can’t field a team, but we’ve not made that final decision yet.”

Pac-12 Networks… things could be better

When asked how he felt about the distribution of Pac-12 Network, Kliavkoff was blunt.

“I wish distribution was better,” he said. “Just being honest, the distribution is not where I would like it to be.”

The problem is that there isn’t much that can be done right now.

“Some of our current and existing distribution contracts make it very difficult to expand distribution under the current model,” Kliavkoff said. “I think we have to look forward to 2024 and set our fans’ expectations. That’s when we’ll be able to reset the distribution.”

There was some pretty big news regarding the network, though: Pac-12 Networks will distribute highlights to any company that is working with student-athletes in an NIL deal.

Be ready for some Nate Landman highlights soon. ?