Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott laid another egg this week. He sent out an email to staffers informing them that anyone making over $100K per year would have their mandated pay reduction kept in place for the next 12 months (somewhere between 5-10 percent, depending on the pay). The Commish also revealed that he accepted a 12 percent pay cut.
If only the story were that simple. The Pac-12 offices, as well as the Pac-12 Network, are in San Francisco. It’s a city Kiplingers, among other publications, lists as the second-most expensive city in America. While $100K sounds like good money, it doesn’t go very far in an area where the cost index is astronomical.
For perspective, as residents in the greater Seattle area know, Bellevue, WA, is not exactly a cheap place to live. Compared to San Francisco, its a walk in the park. The City by the Bay has a 68 percent higher cost of living than Bellevue. If that person decided to live outside the city, say in San Mateo, that’s only 37 percent more than Bellevue, and they would have to commute. So cutting a staffer making $100K to $95K, working in the Bay Area, is a big deal.
Scott has an annual salary of $5.3M. His 12 percent cut takes him down to a paltry $4.66M. While some of the staff are struggling to make ends meet, he took what amounts to a token pay cut.
Memos like the one Scott sent on Wednesday are not for public knowledge. The fact that this email leaked to the media is also a problem. It shows there is a growing contempt for Scott among the Pac-12 conference employees. How long can that working environment continue until something else boils over into the public domain?
The Pac-12 already lags behind the rest of the Power 5 conferences in revenue generated. In 2018, the Conference distributed $29.5M to each school, tied for last with the ACC. That was before the ACC network became a thing. Meanwhile, the Big Ten handed out $54M to the 12 long-standing members of their conference (Rutgers and Maryland received less because they joined in 2014). Distributions to each SEC school was $43.2M, and Big 12 members received $34.7M.
It’s hard for Pac-12 schools to compete when there is such a giant gap in revenue. A big reason for the conference’s lower payouts is the Pac-12 network. While the network only has approximately 18 million subscribers, the SEC Network has 70 million, and the Big Ten Network has 60 million.
But here is the real kick in the pants. The ACC Network launched in August 2019 with 20 million subscribers. The Pac-12 network has been in business for seven years and hasn’t reached that mark. Even the Longhorn Network, which is from the University of Texas, has an estimated 10-20 million subscribers, and that’s for one school. Fortunately for Scott, the rest of the Big 12 hasn’t formed a television network. Otherwise, it would be another entity the Pac-12 would be behind.
One way Scott has justified his high salary is that he runs two separate entities, the conference itself and the Pac-12 Network, which is wholly owned by the conference. It’s a justification that’s becoming less and less justifiable as the revenue cap continues to expand.
The perfect storm is brewing for Scott’s removal when his contract is up in 2022. Pac-12 revenues are much lower than the other Power 5 conferences. Much of that has to do with the lack of availability of the PAC-12 Network. Yet Scott is the highest-paid NCAA commissioner. In contrast, his SEC counterpart Greg Sankey makes about $2M annually. Overhead at the conference office, as evidenced by the over $8M annually, the Pac-12 pays in rent for their cushy San Francisco Diggs (something Scott insisted on when hired).
While the pay cut memo is an embarrassing PR gaff, and certainly not the first during Scott’s watch. When something, such as pay cuts, happen in the business world, it’s one thing. When the conference makes a giant screw up with the on-field product, that’s another animal altogether.
The 2018 Instant Replay scandal undermined the PAC-12’s credibility. When a non-football executive, in this case, General Counsel and VP of Business Affairs Woody Dixon, can interfere and essentially overrule a replay decision on something as important as targeting, the conference looks like a joke. It’s even worse when then the decision had an impact on the outcome of the contest. The no-call helped USC beat Washington State by three points.
Scott said he was conducting a review of the process, after the incident. According to a memo sent by three former Pac-12 referees to Scott, several conference athletic directors, and the media, the commissioner was looking to cover his tail rather than fix the problem.
Mr. Scott, you know from personal experience this is no the first time he has overstepped his bounds…. Woodie singlehandedly caused the exit of the former Supervisor of Officials, and it is well known that several years ago he wanted to fire the gentleman who is now your Replay Supervisor. After the latest incident there is no question the Conference was far more interested in covering this up and finding the source of the info, rather than dealing with Woodie. You did so by removing a very valuable training tool for IR (instant replay). In your blind and bumbled approach you hid our reports and grades. This info had previously been transparent, which allowed IR to confer within itself…. Instead of dropping the hammer on Woodie you dropped it on IR.
So it happened more than once, in an atmosphere that Scott not only knew about but condoned.
Scott shouldn’t be worried about a contract extension. He might lose his job before 2022. John Canzano of the Oregonian reported Wednesday, the Pac-12 CEO Group (a three-member panel of the longest-tenured university presidents and chancellors) are discussing a buyout. The conference’s current network television deals expire after the 2023–24 school year. There is a growing sense that conference members want someone else to negotiate the next contract to be more in line with the other Power 5 conferences.
Well, Clay Travis, has some strong opinions about Larry Scott. How do you feel about Pac-12 Commissioner? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.