(08-08-2023 08:16 AM)Porcine Wrote:  So, GK was the fall guy.

Pretty much. We can argue about how effectively he was going about trying to do the impossible, but impossible it was.

(08-08-2023 08:20 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 07:58 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The one thing that I’d want as a university president (or really leading any type of organization) is transparency internally. If a commissioner doesn’t want to be playing the PR game and providing negotiation details with the media, then that’s totally fine (and maybe even preferable). However, I’d expect that the commissioner would be providing actual details of the media rights negotiations as they go along internally to the university presidents as opposed to platitudes. I want those details whether they’re good or bad.

The fact that Kliavkoff appears to have not presented those details at all during the course of the past year is insane to me. Hiding them until the last minute was only going to cause panic. Maybe the league would have acted on expansion sooner if they weren’t getting such a rosy media rights picture. And yeah, maybe that would have all started the defection process sooner, but then at least anyone left-behind wouldn’t be facing a situation where MWC schools are actually hesitant to join them due the higher post-June 30th exit fee.

No one should be walking into a media rights presentation meeting after a year of negotiations and be surprised. It’s ridiculous.

Agreed.

I think its clear he was failing so he tried to keep the presidents in the dark.

I think he also looked ridiculous attacking the Big 12. That made him look desperate and unprofessional. And after he failed, made him look even more ridiculous and immature. In business, leaders usually aren't as petty and childish (at least in public) as our national political leaders on both sides of the aisle. He wasn't running for any office.

Yep, it's like kids hiding their bad grades from their parents. Whenever someone's hiding something, human nature tells us it's because it's bad news. Kliavkoff was hoping to perpetually kick the can down the road and con everyone into staying by running out the clock.

(08-08-2023 08:16 AM)Porcine Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 08:08 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

IIRC, a year or so ago, the PAC rejected an ESPN deal that would have paid about the same as the Apple deal. maybe a bit more, Scheer said then that it was for $24.5m a year per school (see link below) which he described as "brutal". That was I believe rejected by the university presidents, so not on GK, IMO.

So after that, I suspect GK did the best he could, and the Apple/streaming deal was the best that could be gotten in terms of combo of $$$ and exposure. It was IMO bad on $$$ and even worse on exposure, but it was the market value of the nPAC.

https://twitter.com/365sportsYT/status/1...7005059074

The bottom line is, that initial ESPN offer was IMO likely the very best deal the nPAC was offered. I think they thought they could bargain for more, but it was downhill from there.

So, GK was the fall guy.

More or less.

It’s clear the PAC schools with options were not the maximalists we have here on the PAC surviving.

Klavikoff and the PAC were to serve them, and if not to their needs, they would leave and blame the deal

The era of schools being the conference is gone. They’re members that will leave when the conference isn’t competitive enough

I would like to give GK the benefit of the doubt. In private conversations, he probably promised nothing. It was the presidents who kept telling him the available offers were not good enough and to go out and try again. In the end, the presidents were just stalling trying to act like they tried many times to save the conference, when in reality they knew months ago, it was not going to work out and would be leaving. Well everybody but the ASU president, anyway.

(08-08-2023 08:01 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

How does he still have a job?

because his bosses are now more focused on theur next conference than their current one.

(08-08-2023 09:34 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 08:01 AM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

How does he still have a job?

because his bosses are now more focused on theur next conference than their current one.

The six schools committed to leaving aren't his bosses anymore. So it's just half his bosses working out which conference they want to be in. WSU and THE Other, Other OSU are working on which MWC schools they want to invite to share in the unit pool and two years of CFP payments.

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

I think they all regretted going to the open market. To your point the presidents are to blame for not considering expansion during the "window". If the Big10 doesn't add Oregon and Washington then they all sign the streaming deal, but because Colorado jumped to the Big12, the Big10 decided to reengage. But this falls in line with the Pac12 leadership style (Commish & Presidents) for the past decade or so:

- Couldn't get Texas & Oklahoma in 2010
- Failed Pac Network
- Comcast overpayments and "knew about it" and never made it right
- Holiday Bowl suing Pac12
- SF Pac HQ fiasco, it cost a ton to move out of said Larry Scott prefer location (10M)
- Allowed USC President Carol Folt to stop expansion plans after Texas & Oklahoma announce their departure to SEC. Had the Pac-12 gone through with expansion, they could have been one of the mega-conferences that college sports are destined to see and had their pick of the litter of Big 12 programs such as TCU, Oklahoma State, Kansas, or Baylor. However, thanks to Folt's persistence the conference chose not to and USC and UCLA then bolted to the BIG10.

Common theme is "Mismanagement", and there will be a 30 for 30 that documents all this nonsense.

(08-09-2023 06:50 AM)GTFletch Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

Allowed USC President Carol Folt to stop expansion plans after Texas & Oklahoma announce their departure to SEC. Had the Pac-12 gone through with expansion, they could have been one of the mega-conferences that college sports are destined to see and had their pick of the litter of Big 12 programs such as TCU, Oklahoma State, Kansas, or Baylor. However, thanks to Folt's persistence the conference chose not to and USC and UCLA then bolted to the BIG10.

Common theme is "Mismanagement", and there will be a 30 for 30 that documents all this nonsense.

Texas and OU left those schools behind but somehow they were going to make the Pac 12 one of the mega conferences?! Sure, sure. What kind of value would they have added? Anything beyond 30m, maybe 40m maximum? 50m per school. Seriously doubt it. Im sure USC and UCLA would have loved to stay behind and make 40-45m instead of 65-70m. Thats basic math. All of you guys assume way too many things.

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

At $50M per year per school as some have suggested the streaming deal potentially was worth, schools would listen. It was only after getting the details that opposition emerged within the PAC. Who wouldn't hang around to get a $50M deal. That said there was a lot of deceptive marketing in the process.

(08-08-2023 07:58 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The one thing that I’d want as a university president (or really leading any type of organization) is transparency internally. If a commissioner doesn’t want to be playing the PR game and providing negotiation details with the media, then that’s totally fine (and maybe even preferable). However, I’d expect that the commissioner would be providing actual details of the media rights negotiations as they go along internally to the university presidents as opposed to platitudes. I want those details whether they’re good or bad.

The fact that Kliavkoff appears to have not presented those details at all during the course of the past year is insane to me. Hiding them until the last minute was only going to cause panic. Maybe the league would have acted on expansion sooner if they weren’t getting such a rosy media rights picture. And yeah, maybe that would have all started the defection process sooner, but then at least anyone left-behind wouldn’t be facing a situation where MWC schools are actually hesitant to join them due the higher post-June 30th exit fee.

No one should be walking into a media rights presentation meeting after a year of negotiations and be surprised. It’s ridiculous.

I agree. The deal needed to be done before June. Kliavkoff was asking schools to jump off a cliff with a potential alleged upside of up to $50 million and no apparent linear TV. Basically, jumping off a cliff without a parachute. At the 11th hour. Kliavkoff had to know that he could not lose Oregon and Washington. Lose those two, the rest will flee like rats off a sinking ship.

Pac-12 Football Media Day in Las Vegas was a dud. You could see it coming. No one was buying what Kliavkoff was selling. SDSU and SMU should have been invited months before. It would have helped offset any potential losses in membership, and it would have given the Pac-12 media day meeting some much-needed energy. Kliavkoff had 13 months to keep the conference together. He allowed the conference to take a PR beating for 13 months. An epic failure.

(08-08-2023 02:06 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(08-08-2023 01:41 AM)ShowtimeBruin Wrote:  One of the biggest mysteries to me about the whole PAC-12 media rights saga is how Kliavkoff negotiated a streaming based media package even though his presidents were fundamentally opposed to such concept. You would think the commissioner would negotiate media deals in close consultation with his constituent presidents and that they would be routinely updated on developments. Either the PAC-12 presidents knew the inevitable demise of the conference for some months now or this is the most dysfunctional institution in sports business. It just doesn’t make much sense to me how this deal was sprung upon the conference presidents out of thin air.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/202...in-big-ten

Yeah, I know what you mean.

USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten Conference in 2024, the two schools announced, in a stunning move that transforms the college sports landscape.

Kind of like how USCLA sprung their departure on the Conference Presidents out of thin air. I guess secrecy is just a Pac thing?

USC and UCLA are part to blame for not expanding with Texas two times, and the third time to try and raid Big 12 again which PAC 12 would still be alive, and Big 12 would have regroup with the best of AAC and MWC schools to keep the A5 status.