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Why did the Pac 12 have to die?
60K views
Jan 20, 2024
After a thrilling Pac-12 Championship Game between Washington and Oregon, let's examine what led to the death of the conference. Damon Amendolara (D.A.) walks us through the missteps and mistakes of the commissioners, Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, in leading the league to disaster. D.A. also looks at the role of television executives and the natural dysfunction of CFB. Plus, there's some bad luck as well. But the main point is, it didn't need to be this way.
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After last night's Pac-12 championship game, Oregon and Washington just played two of the
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best games of the entire college football season. We have more momentum for the Pac-12 as a conference in these schools than ever before
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The Huskies are definitely in the college football playoff. The quarterbacks, the interest, the celebrities, the schools remind me again why the Pac-12
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couldn't survive. It is insane to look at last night's Pac-12 championship game and say, that's it, sorry
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we're done here. Think about the dynamics in play for this football conference
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A team undefeated going into the college football playoff. Another huge brand of the Oregon Ducks who played great football throughout the season
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and had a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback who put up eye-popping numbers
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Perhaps the most famous head coach in the game today in Deion Sanders and the second
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largest market in America with two schools. Add in there the Bay Area, a top 10 market as well, and you would have yourselves a pretty
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interesting college football conference, right? Wrong! Wrong! Because you screwed it up
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How did we get here? Let's look at leadership. Larry Scott, the old Pac-12 commissioner, and then George Klyovkov, who took over for
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him, were two utter clowns. They didn't realize the value of what they had, and they tried to hold out for a bigger windfall
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Imagine having college football as your content that you are selling to a national audience
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who really loves college football and a country that really loves football
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How do you screw that up? Larry Scott wasted money on a number of ridiculous things
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His Pac-12 Networks idea was a complete disaster. Don't keep it in-house
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Outsource this to people that, you know, do television for a living
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He tried to play hardball with TV executives across the country and by delaying it so long
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got hopped in the pecking order by the Big 12. And then instead of just fixing what was broken, Klyovkov came in and again tried to shoot
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for the moon with some ridiculous Apple TV streaming combo that nobody really understood
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how it would work. They waited, they waited, they waited for a huge big bounty to come, and it didn't come
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because they misread the market. Look, some of this is bad timing
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Had they had this version of Washington and this version of Oregon and this version of
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Colorado, maybe they could have had more options on the table. But they didn't, and they screwed it up
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Think about the brand of the USC Trojans. Think about that being a top three college football brand in the entire sport, with the
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National Championships and Heisman Trophies, the history, the pageantry, the legacy. Oh, and Los Angeles
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How do you let that school become untethered, float away to the Big Ten
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It's ridiculous. Speaking of LA, let's just go over the television demos of your conference, okay
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This is market size in America. LA, the number two largest market
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The Bay Area, the 10th largest market. Phoenix, number 11. Seattle, number 12
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Oh, that's 10, 11, and 12. Denver, 16. Sacramento, 20. Portland, 22
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And Salt Lake, 29. Add in San Diego at number 30, and you have nine of the 30 largest television markets
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in your college football conference. You're telling me you couldn't sell that
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It was ego, and it was apathy. It was chancellors and athletic directors across the Pac-12 that just assumed, we'll
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be fine. We'll figure it out. Somebody wants us, without truly being innovative and truly being a catalyst for change and
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a catalyst for the next television deal and the stability that they needed in the conference
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This was all so avoidable. It makes your mind melt that somebody could screw this up
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And this is because college football is a bunch of individual kingdoms that are all
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influenced by television executives. Oh my goodness, what can we do to please you, King
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Imagine the NFC East and the AFC South and the AFC West
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They all were run individually. There was no true commissioner's office and league center point
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And let's just say the NFC East looked at the Rams and said, you know what
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You've got a big old market over there and some good history. Why don't you come play with us
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And the Rams suddenly were in the NFC East. And let's just say the AFC North, with the history of the Browns and the Steelers
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They looked at the Seahawks and said, hey, you know what? We like your market size
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Come play with us. Hey, Cardinals, you too. You're in our division now
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And that this was all manipulated by, let's say, Fox Sports, who ran the NFL playoffs
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That the league didn't run its own postseason, but instead a television network did
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And we'll tell you where to go and when to play and who you're going to play
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And we'll keep the cash. Oh, we'll dole out some of it to you, but do what we say
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It'll be better for you. But imagine how dysfunctional the NFL would be if divisions ran themselves and the postseason
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was run by a television network. The end of the Pac-12, and it didn't need to be this way
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That great championship game was one final jab to the solar plexus of Pac-12 fans and
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I think college football fans in general. For more videos like this, subscribe right here
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I'm DA. We'll see you next time
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