About two weeks ago, on July 27th during PAC-12 Media Day, the conference preseason poll was announced. If you remember, this time last year we weren’t even sure the PAC-12 was going to particpate in the college football season and the poll wasn’t released until September 3rd. So the fact that it took place in July, when it historically has, makes me feel like we’re in so much better shape this year when it comes to PAC-12 college football than last season.
If you haven’t kept track, PAC-12 Commissioner Larry Scott “retired” and has been replaced by George Kliavkoff. Scott, who during his tenure, was looked at as a savior to start with but ended up in many people’s minds as one of the major reasons for the decline in quality and national reputation of PAC-12 college football. According to the Los Angeles Times in their article regarding Kliavkoff on August 2nd; “The PAC-12 schools are carrying lingering frustrations from the decade of decline in prestige and money overseen by former commissioner Larry Scott from his ivory tower in downtown San Francisco.”
Who is this guy Kliavkoff and why do folks think he can deliver? That’s exactly what folks were wondering when he was announced as the replacement for Scott. Short version, Kliavkoff was President of Entertainment and Sports for MGM Resorts and is considered an expert in fan experience, content creation and distribution. According to Beth Comstock who hired him as Chief Digial Officer at NBC Universal in 2006; “He’s good at navigating ambiguity when you don’t know what the answer is but you kow there’s a lot of disruption.” Out of that context Kliavkoff created Hulu. Sounds like a perfect guy to navigate promoting PAC-12 football during an ongoing pandemic. More importantly and to the point as the Los Angeles Times continues; “The commonality with most of his achievements is that they brought entertainment content to consumers in fresh ways and made his stakeholders rich—results [that] are precisely what the conference needs from its next media rights negotiations in 2024.”
As far as making an immediate impression on PAC-12 head coaches, Athletic Directors as well as the heads of the conference’s bowl alliances, Kliavkoff checked off that box by inviting all of them to dinner and to talk the night before. As pointed out in the July 28th Trojan Wire for USA Today Sports; “Kliavkoff showed at PAC-12 Media Day and in his Monday night dinner that he is willing to listen to and include other people in conversations, instead of walling them off,” like Scott. Actions speak louder than words which is probably why Kliavkoff kept his brief and to the point as he said at media day; “The PAC-12 will make all of our football related decisions with the combined goals of optimizing College Football Playoff invitations and winning national championships.”
In addition to changes in the front office, after being altered in the 2020 season due to Covid-19 the PAC-12 has reinstated its forfeiture rule for this coming season. According to Sport’s Illustrated; “With COVID-19 vaccines now readily available for all conference members new commissioner, George Kliavkoff, has decided that tweaking the forfeiture policy once again would be unnecessary.” As such the PAC-12 released the following statement:
“Following consultation with the Pac-12 Athletic Directors Committee, the Pac-12 has determined that its prior longstanding game forfeiture rule that was temporarily modified for this past season due to Covid-19, shall once again be applied for this coming athletic season. In accordance with that rule, if an institution is unable to play a contest through its own fault, it shall forfeit such contest to its opponent. Any forfeited contest shall be regarded as a conference loss for the team making the forfeit and a conference win for its opponent. The Pac-12 rule provides the Commissioner with discretion to determine whether an institution is at fault or primarily at fault for an inability to play a contest based on the facts of the situation.”