Newly appointed Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff has his work cut-out for him. When he initially accepted the position a few months back, the conference viewed media rights and national relevance as their biggest challenges. Those still stand for the most part, but now there’s whole other monster in the equation; conference realignment. Texas and Oklahoma are set to leave the Big-12 for the SEC. Kliavokoff has taken this action as a warning for his own conference.
Make sure your money makers are happy. Make sure you’re talking to your money makers.
Jon Wilner of The Mercury News reports that the new comissioner has toured, and paid special attention, to the three most profitable programs in the conference; USC, Washington and Oregon. It’s an incredibly proactive move by an executive reading the tea leaves. He sees what happened with Texas/Oklahoma in the Big-12. The conference obviously didn’t listen to institutions that wanted more say in the group’s future direction.
Kliavkoff worries other conferences, like the Big-10, will lure the three schools away with enticing broadcasting rights incentives and more exposure. At the end of the day, a conference like the Big-10 might be able to offer USC, Oregon or Washington more money. If either of those schools leave the Pac-12 it would essentially be a death certificate for the conference.
Oregon should use this newfound leverage to ask Kliavkoff for better kick times. Let’s be honest, no one on the east coast, let alone the west coast, want to watch a football game at 9 am.