Pac-12: The next commissioner has a big job to fix a leaky ship
Poll Voting
Now is also the time to stop complaining about eastern bias in the polls. Last August I wrote an article on this very topic. To be a marquee conference, members have to show up in the polls. Last year only four Pac-12 schools voted in the Coaches Poll (that included Kevin Sumlin, who was fired after the season). Meanwhile, the SEC and Big Ten have seven each.
It’s not a bias thing at this point; it’s a participation thing. Additionally, no one is advocating “ballot-stuffing.”If eastern coaches don’t watch West Coast games, as critics point out, then the next Pac-12 commissioner has to mandate at least half the conference schools participate in the Coaches Poll.
Get out of town
Although moving the Pac-12 offices isn’t the highest priority, it’s probably the first thing that should happen. The conference pays a fortune in rent, almost $7M annually, for their upscale San Francisco offices. Yes, prestige counts for something, but as Shrek would say, “Do you think he’s compensating for something?”
If supporters of smaller sports want something to complain about, this is it. Maybe if Stanford had some of the money back from paying 11 years of the Pac-12’s outrageous overhead, they wouldn’t have cut 11 sports programs last summer. Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, or Las Vegas work just as well, if not better than San Francisco, and rent will be much less.
The Big Ten is headquartered in Chicago and has a satellite office in New York City. They pay only $1.5M in rent annually.
Hopefully they also clean house at the Pac-12 offices, which are preferably moved out of San Francisco.
— Eric Hovland (@EricJHovland) January 21, 2021