The Pac 12 Probably Wants Billions To Show Amateur Sports.
George Kliavkoff was not brought in as college sports Pac 12 commissioner because someone has to oversee the operation of a bunch of amateur athletes in school. Kliavkoff is the new Commissioner of the Pac 12 because his background suggests that he could get some really big television cash for the conference which features players who are not going to be compensated for putting on a TV show for people. Take a look at Kliavkoff’s background and you can see almost immediately why he stood out to the presidents and chancellors of the Pac 12 member schools. Kliavkoff has worked for A+E Networks, Hearst Entertainment and Syndication, Hulu, NBC Universal Media and MLB Advanced Media. He has been hired to negotiate the Pac-12’s next media rights deal. Those talks are expected to begin sometime in 2022. The conference’s present 12-year, $3 billion deal with FOX and ESPN was once the most lucrative in college sports. However, it pales in comparison with other big time college sports programs in 2021. The Pac 12 should do well considering it has Los Angeles and San Francisco as huge markets and there are some good-sized mid-level markets in Seattle, Denver, and Phoenix.
But Kliavkoff knows what needs to be done to get people really interested in investing in the PAC 12. The conference has to have better football and basketball programs. “The greatest weakness, if we’re honest with ourselves, is the number of years it’s been since we won a football and men’s basketball championship,” Kliavkoff said recently. “We’re going to do everything we can at the conference level to fix that.” Klivakoff also mentioned something about education but realistically education is not the main goal of a big-time football or basketball program. It comes down to wins and perception, perception that the PAC 12 is good. That brings in cash.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
