Pac 12: The Spectacular Downfall of the Conference of Champions

The Pac 12 Conference’s downfall was breathtaking. What precipitated the implosion of the conference?

Some blame greed and avarice on the part of USC (and, to a lesser extent, UCLA), but what is the root cause for the disintegration of the once mighty Conference of Champions?

As discussed below, the driving force behind the exodus from the Pac 12 appears to have been the desire to generate revenue, couple with the related goal of gaining or maintaining a competitive edge — desires shared by all of the universities that bolted from the Pac 12.

The Rise Before the Fall

In the first half of the 20th century, what is now known as the Pac-12 Conference was called the Pacific Coast Conference. The conference thereafter went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, and Pacific-10. The Pac-12 moniker was adopted in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined the conference.

The founding members of the conference, are Cal (UC Berkeley), Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington. They formed the conference in 1915. Washington State joined the conference two years later, in 1917. Stanford joined in 1918, followed by USC in 1922, and UCLA in 1928.

Over the course of more than a century, the Pac 12 put together an impressive history:

“The Pac-12 has won the most or tied for the most NCAA titles for 18 consecutive seasons (through 2022-23 season). Spanning over a century of outstanding athletics achievements, the Pac-12 has claimed 555 NCAA Championships (328 men’s, 204 women’s, 23 combined), over 200 more than the next league.”

All-time great athletes performed in the Pac 12 over the years. Here’s just a sampling, from various sports:

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• John Elway
• Ronnie Lott
• Cheryl Miller
• Tiger Woods
• Steve Prefontaine
• Arthur Ashe
• Jackie Robinson
• Katie Ledecky

The Collapse of the Conference of Champions

The Associated Press (AP) has closely followed and reported on the tumultuous NCAA conference realignment over the past couple years, labeling the phenomenon the Sports Story of the Year for 2023.

The disbanding of the Pac 12 has been a prominent feature of the recent conference realignment.

Blame Allocated to Pac 12 Commissioners

The commissioners of the Pac 12 during its collapse were Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff.

Scott, who earned the derisive nickname “Limo Larry” during his tenure, was criticized for lavish expenditures, such as $7,500 per night stays at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas during the Pac 12 men’s basketball end-of-season conference championship tournament. Under Scott’s reign, “[t]he financials of the Pac-12, when compared to its peers nationally, paint[ed] a picture of a conference that [was] operating lavishly and producing significantly less revenue for its members.”

Washington State Athletic Director Pat Chun publicly and explicitly blamed Scott for allowing “a century of history” to go by the wayside as a result of “poor leadership” and inept “management”.

As Scott was eventually forced out, Los Angeles-based media joined the condemnation, and also criticized the Pac 12 for giving Scott a cozy departing gift:

“Larry Scott received a $1.5 million severance payment from Pac-12 presidents. That’s a lot, considering that Scott was already taking in a lot of money for doing a less-than-great job.”

Over the course of the six-month span immediately preceding his departure (January 2021 through June 2021), Scott received $4.1 million in compensation from the Pac 12.

Needless to say, fans of the conference were not pleased.

Kliavkoff replaced Smith in July 2021. However, Kliavkoff did not fare much better than his predecessor. In the assessment of the Seattle Times, “Kliavkoff was hired to avert disaster but, in fact, was wholly ill-equipped for the task.”

Although Kliavkoff was paid at a lesser rate than Scott, he still “received $1.8 million in compensation for his first six months on the job in 2021.”

By all accounts, Kliavkoff inherited “a very big mess.” He “was dealt a bad hand and played it poorly.”

USC and UCLA made the decision to leave the conference on Kliavkoff’s watch, and, for all intents and purposes, that was the death knell of the Pac 12. If there was any chance of resuscitation, Kliavkoff squandered it — failing to take the steps necessary to entice Oregon and Washington to stay in the conference.

The Pac 12 replaced Kliavkoff on March 1, 2024.

Per the San Jose Mercury News, Kliavkoff’s “catastrophic 973-day tenure” ended with a “multimillion [dollar] settlement, zero signs of regret[,] and no issuance of public comment.”

For his part, Kliavkoff blamed the collapse of the conference “entirely on the [university] presidents’ poor leadership, the difficult circumstances he inherited[,] and the schools’ refusal to accept [a media] deal placed before them.”

On the one hand, the Mercury News agreed with Kliavkoff that “responsibility starts with the presidents who have ultimate authority over the conference.” On the other hand. Kliavkoff was “arguably the most ineffective commissioner in the modern era of college athletics.” He “failed to grasp the basics of realignment — that urgency [was] required.” And above all, he either “didn’t bother or was unable to read the room.”

Some laid the blame for the Pac 12’s demise on Scott and Kliavkoff alone.

USC put the Pac-8 on the map, kept the Pac-10 nationally relevant, and ultimately got frustrated with the lack of leadership in the Pac-12. 

The downfall of the Pac-12 is on Larry Scott & George Kliavkoff, NOT USC. ✌️

— Jeff Mckay (@MckayJ) August 4, 2023

The Pac-12 since 2021:

• Hired George Kliavkoff as commissioner
• Formed The Alliance with ACC, Big Ten
• Moved out of San Francisco HQ
• Lost USC and UCLA to Big Ten
• Lost Colorado to Big 12
• Lost Oregon and Washington to Big Ten
• Lost Arizona, ASU, and Utah to Big 12… pic.twitter.com/mE2y2W6gcQ

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 16, 2024

Others looked above the commissioners and allocated blame — at least partial blame — to the heads of the universities.

Blame Allocated to University Presidents

According to the Seattle Times:

“Scott and Kliavkoff were deeply flawed and made a litany of strategic miscalculations, but both reported to, and took direction from, the presidents…. [And, the presidents] ruled the kingdom with a destructive mix of arrogance, ignorance and indifference.

“They didn’t care about college football; they didn’t understand college sports; and they carried an inflated view of their schools’ value in the media rights game.”

It seems as though there is simply quite a bit of blame to go around.

Pac-12 blame-game score is as follows, for those so inclined:

Scott: 24%
Kliavkoff: 25%
Presidents: 51% https://t.co/mWj5nugrVQ

— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) February 14, 2024

The Fallout: A New World Order in Collegiate Athletics

In December 2023, AP reported:

“The Pac-12 was ripped apart and redistributed by its competitors, regardless of geography. The stunning demolition, set in motion a year earlier, was accelerated when the Pac-12 couldn’t secure a media rights deal to match its competitors….

“The end of the Pac-12 ushered in the super conference era and laid bare the bottom line of college sports.

“‘I don’t know what the institutions that are involved will say was the motivation, but it was money in every case,’ former Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said….

“The Power Five is now a Power Four, but within that there is a Big Two. The Big Ten and SEC now have media rights deals that will allow them to provide yearly payouts to their members of upwards of $70 million. The ACC and Big 12 are hoping to stay within $30 million per year per school of those stratospheric numbers.

“This all comes as the prospect of major college football players being directly paid by schools becomes more realistic. Just two weeks ago, NCAA President Charlie Baker proposed a plan to do exactly that.…

“Conference realignment has been a part of college sports for about as long as games have been game on campus, primarily driven by schools and leagues jockeying for prestige, better competition and more robust revenue streams.

“The most recent round of realignment felt more predatory. Survival for the fittest….

“A new competitive reality is also coming to college football and it could be harsh for some schools.”

Money talks. And, unfortunately for fans of the Pac 12, this ageless truism has brought about the end of a once great league.