Pac-12: The next commissioner has a big job to fix a leaky ship
Bigger Footprint
The Pac-12 needs to expand. This is a controversial but necessary step. It’s time to add Brigham Young University. It’s as close to landing Notre Dame as the Pac-12 will ever get. The Cougars bring a national (and international) audience with them. Imagine what it would be like if one year the Brigham Young vs. Utah Holy War game was for the Pac-12 South title. They don’t want to play basketball or baseball on Sundays, fine, then schedule them to play on Saturdays instead.
Besides bringing a top-shelf athletic program with them, they could teach the conference something about television distribution. The Pac-12 network has access to about 20 million subscribers. Meanwhile, BYUtv is available to 65 million.
Since an odd number of teams won’t work, the University of Nevada – Las Vegas should be the 14th member. The school’s enrollment numbers are similar to Washington State, Oregon State, Colorado, and Utah. Nevada, like Utah, is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. Now is the time to tap into what is sure to be a growing fan base.
Ideal Commissioner Candidate
Let’s tie this up in a neat bow. The ideal candidate to run the Pac-12 and make the conference relevant again should have the following qualities.
- Run the conference like the multi-billion dollar business that it is.
- Find a way to leverage television exposure against revenue to rebuild the conference’s standing and make the schools appealing to high profile recruits.
- Make sure the Pac-12 represents themselves by participating in Coaches Polls.
- Put schools first by getting rid of the San Francisco money pit and giving their members more money at a time when they so desperately need it.
- Expand the fan base by growing the conference’s footprint.
Larry Scott has earned more than twice as much in salary from the #Pac12 over his tenure as his creation, the networks, have distributed to each school over its lifetime. Our look at the salary piece of the commissioner search:https://t.co/jJRbabZyXt
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) January 27, 2021
It’s not going to be easy for the new commissioner, but there is still a big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.