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Conference Realignment: PAC 12 commissioner talks about potential expansion

By Matthew Conner

PALO ALTO, CA - NOVEMBER 23: A detail view of the Pac-12 logo and grass field at Stanford Stadium prior to an NCAA college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and the California Golden Bears in the annual Big Game rivalry on November 23, 2019 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, CA - NOVEMBER 23: A detail view of the Pac-12 logo and grass field at Stanford Stadium prior to an NCAA college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and the California Golden Bears in the annual Big Game rivalry on November 23, 2019 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images) /
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If  George Kliavkoff thought his first few weeks on the job as new PAC 12 commissioner were going to afford him the opportunity to ease into his new role, he was sorely mistaken.  Kilavkoff, like everyone else in the college athletics world, has had to adjust on the fly to the news that Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the SEC and on Tuesday, the leader of the conference Texas Tech fans are hopeful to join spoke to the media at PAC 12 media day.

We all know that this decision is going to be about money and whether it will make financial sense for the PAC 12 to expand.  Essentially, that conference has to be assured by its television and media partners that adding teams would enhance the conference’s value enough that the league’s media rights deal would be renegotiated and increased.  If that’s not going to be the case, there’s no reason for the PAC 12 to add four more teams thus reducing the annual share that each school in the league receives.  But on Tuesday, Kliavkoff spoke as if he thinks there’s extra value to be had in the PAC 12 media rights deal.

"According to Dennis Dodd of CBS, Kliavkoff said, “we believe our media rights will be even more valuable if there is further FBS consolidation.”"

While that statement is understandably vague, one could interpret it as meaning that Kliavkoff believes that the fewer conferences there are to split the college football revenue pie, the more his conference would stand to gain.  And how does more of that pie go to the PAC 12?  By the dissolution of another major conference.  Thus, might it be in the PAC 12’s best interest to help facilitate the end of the Big 12 by inviting some of the remaining eight schools to head west?

Another interesting comment that Kliavkoff made concerned geography, which could play into Tech’s favor in this potential conference shuffling. Essentially, Kliavkoff touted the fact that his conference is the only major conference with schools in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.

While that fact alone doesn’t mean much to Texas Tech and its future, we can glean from this remark that Kliavkoff is focused on geography as it pertains to his league.  Why?  Because that matters to television networks.

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In essence, it would behoove the PAC 12, or any other conference, to have a footprint in as many major markets and as many timezones as is reasonably possible.  And with the Pacific and Mountain time zones already locked up, could Kliavkoff be interested in invading the Central time zone?  If so, the one current Power 5 conference team that would bring the most to the table is Texas Tech given the university’s huge alumni presence in Dallas-Fort Worth as well as strong alumni bases in San Antonio and Houston.

But when pressed on the issue, Kliavkoff said that he does not believe there is any risk to his conference if it decides to stay at 12 teams.  Of course, that’s exactly what any conference commissioner in his position would say.  And perhaps he’s right.  However, the winds of change are blowing and Kliavkoff won’t want to be the commissioner who stood idly by and did nothing while other leagues around the nation made aggressive moves as is expected in the wake of the SEC’s power play.

He then admitted that schools have reached out to the PAC 12 but declined to elaborate.  Likewise, he declined to answer a specific question about whether or not Texas Tech has had conversations with the PAC 12.

But Kilavkoff did say that all options are “on the table”, a statement that further gives hope to schools such as Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.  But for now, Texas Tech and the rest of the teams hoping for a lifeline from the PAC 12 are going to have to play the long game.

If Texas and Oklahoma had been working on their move to the SEC for up to six months as has been reported, one would have to logically believe that any PAC 12 (or another conference’s) expansion would take just as long, if not longer given that the news of the past week and the maneuvering by Texas and OU has left the rest of the college football world scrambling to make sense of it all.

But what we can take away from Kilavkoff’s remarks on Tuesday is that there is movement behind the scenes.  Hopefully, that movement ends with Texas Tech having a seat at the PAC 12 table.

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