Ktmguy2018 No. 1 Share Posted August 6, 2023 Tremendous article from Stewart Mandel (love him or despise him) regarding how the CFKAPAC12 (Conference Formerly Known As PAC12) ended up at extinction. I will admit, there was some strong emotions when he talked about the ESPN Gameday coverage of that AWESOME game between Stanford and Oregon (Darron Thomas outdueled Andrew Luck and LaMike went OFF with 3TDs). The next few years seemed to be the pinnacle of PAC-12's rise, although no one knew it at the time. The conference WAS relevant, innovative, and cutting edge.... Fast forward to today (unless Mari0 is calling plays, then meander and shuffle) and Mandel lays the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of Larry Scott...and that's where it should be. Yes, Kliavkoff has a role to play. But Scott bears this. Mandel: Pac-12's cause of death is about gross failure of leadership THEATHLETIC.COM From Larry Scott to George Kliavkoff, here's how the Pac-12 fell apart amid mass departures to the Big Ten and... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennsylvania Duck Moderator No. 2 Share Posted August 6, 2023 This is an article behind a paywall so most of OBDF will not have access. You will have to give a recap of what Mandel wrote. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennsylvania Duck Moderator No. 3 Share Posted August 6, 2023 The following is an article that expresses how the conference is where we are... Jon Gold: Pac-12's demise a decade's worth of naivete, in Larry Scott's own words Larry Scott strode up to the podium at Pac-12 Media Day on July 26, 2011, a conquering hero. He’d only been on the job 2 years and 4 months, but he’d led a tidal wave of momentum for the venerated conference out west, which was coming off the heyday of the Pete Carroll era at USC and entering the Chip Kelly era years at Oregon. A year earlier, the league had expanded by two schools — Colorado and Utah — and, just under three months earlier, Scott had announced a landmark, 12-year, $3 billion television rights deal with ESPN and Fox that, at the time, was the richest in college athletics history. Read the article below to see how the conference is where it is today...through Larry Scott's own words... Gold: Pac-12’s demise a decade’s worth of naivete, in Larry Scott’s own words SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM For nearly a decade, Larry Scott sold a vision for the Pac-12 that ultimately never came to fruition. Ultimately, that skewed vision helped doom the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
idontrollonshobbas No. 4 Share Posted August 6, 2023 (edited) Thumbnail version of the Mandel piece: in 2011, the P12 finished the season with 3 teams ranked in the top 6 AND had just signed the most lucrative media deal college sports history. 12 years later, implosion. The cause? Apathy (Pac-12 Presidents, namely Crow at ASU); hubris (Larry Scott and his network without a partner model), and unparalleled mismanagement (Crow and others rejecting a DirectTV package AND Oklahoma and Texas joining the conference). The Harvard Biz School now has a new Case Study on how not to manage an athletic conglomerate or, if you prefer, a profile of executive ineptitude. Larry Scott will be immortalized. Kliavkoff was left with empty coffers after these failures led to B1G and SEC acquisitions....the writing was on the wall. He also implies that West Coast academic culture is about the furthest thing from College Athletic business acumen one could find with ASU's Crow as the poster child of mendacity. Edited August 6, 2023 by idontrollonshobbas typos 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 5 Share Posted August 6, 2023 Jon Wilner in an article up today on The Mercury News, has an article up on the 12 Steps to Pac-12 Destruction. Paywall protected but PA Ducks has pulled a Wilner paywall end run on numerous occasions and hope she will do so here. Borrowing from AA's 1st step of the 12 steps in recovery - We came to believe that we were powerless over inept leadership accompanied by hubris. In summary: See Foot, Shoot! At every fork in the business road, the Pac-12 went the wrong way. Oregon leadership was part and parcel of this nonsense. But with the help of Phil Knight and NIKE, Oregon built a national brand larger than that of Portland's 22nd place in Nielson rankings. A national awareness greater than that of fellow B1G newbie, UW, located in the #12 ranked media market. Phil Knight and progressive marketing threw Oregon a college sports lifeline. Oregon had no other reasonable business choice than to join the B1G as a junior revenue member. IMO, this is a bet that will pay off handsomely come 2031 and a new B1G media deal; a decision that provides long-term security for Oregon in an inexorable move to Power 2 conferences, leaving behind a bunch of college teams that did not make the cut. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennsylvania Duck Moderator No. 6 Share Posted August 6, 2023 On 8/6/2023 at 12:19 PM, Jon Joseph said: Jon Wilner in an article up today on The Mercury News, has an article up on the 12 Steps to Pac-12 Destruction. Paywall protected but PA Ducks has pulled a Wilner paywall end run on numerous occasions and hope she will do so here. I posted the referenced Wilner article on the Wilner article site last night. I will post below for reference here. Wilner – Pac-12 collapse: Tracing the 12 strategic blunders that led to Doomsday Wilner – Pac-12 collapse: Tracing the 12 strategic blunders that led to Doomsday SPORTS360AZ.COM <p>The morning after, devastation. “Gut-wrenching stuff,” one Pac-12 administrator noted. “So damn sad,” offered another. The... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuackAttack No. 7 Share Posted August 6, 2023 Larry Scott is only 1/2 of the equation! The other 1/2 is the university presidents! They hold the power, they could have told Larry you will contract with ESPN, Fox or whomever, but they didn't. This should be a lesson that Ph.D's that burry their noses in books on theory most of their lives are clueless on how the real world works! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
