George Kliavkoff is officially the Pac-12 commissioner. He takes over the conference at one of the most important junctures in history, with the bigger conferences just about in control of the entire country, and the Pac-12 falling further and further behind.
The TV deal is a disaster, the football and basketball teams haven’t won a championship in over a decade, the games are on so late that no one on the East coast watches them, recruiting is as bad as in any Power 5 conference. In other words: the Pac-12 is in rebuild mode. As with any rebuild, it is going to take a couple of years to right the ship, but the first step needs to be stopping the water from coming in.
My opinion would be that he starts with the game times. The only way to be relevant is to make yourself relevant, and Larry Scott allowed the Pac-12 to be as irrelevant as the Sun Belt Conference over the last few years. Put the games in front of a national audience, or no one will ever know what the programs look like. Having people all over the country watch the games is the first step to proving you will not be trifled with. Step two would be winning those same games, so that’s self explanatory.
But what is your opinion on the most pressing need? If the conference could blame all of their problems on one issue, what would it be?
Ryan Robertson
Yuma, Arizona
Top Photo By: Pac-12 Twitter
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Ryan Robertson is a defense contractor for the United States Marine Corps. A lifelong Duck fan from Grants Pass, he joined the Army out of high school. After four years as an Intelligence Analyst he decided it was time to further his education and pay more attention to his Ducks. One of Ryan’s first memories is of watching the Ducks, led by Joey Harrington, beating up on the Utah Utes in 2001. His grandfather ran track at Oregon in the ‘50s. He loves the Ducks, and has a passionate interest in reading every scrap of analysis centered around the football team.