After all of the lives of us Cal and Stanford Alumns, the past five days have been nothing less than a total shock. Because Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff did not acknowledge that the same forces altering media that caused actors and writers to go on strike would force the colleges in his conference to seek better deals if he could not come up with one, the storied western once-jugernaut is marked for termination.
Meanwhile, the U.C Regents are set to meet on the matter of the dissolution of the Pac-12 in an emergency closed session meeting set for today, Tuesday. As that U.C Regents Meeting is to happen, Cal and Stanford are looking at a future that could see the rivalry pair in a newly reformed Pac-12 with the Mountain West, or joining the Big 10, or entering the Big-12, or be part of the ACC. The question is, what should Cal and Stanford do?
Well, first off, it’s very clear that the Pac-12 is not taking any fast action, otherwise we would have seen an annoucement by now. This tweet expresses the feelings of many….
And How Will This Pac-12 History Story Finish?
On The Pac-12 Website, we find this presentation of the history of leadership and action (https://pac-12.com/about-pac-12#missionstatement):
In 1959, the PCC was dissolved and the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) was formed with Thomas J. Hamilton appointed Commissioner of the new league. The original AAWU membership included California, Stanford, USC, UCLA, and Washington. Washington State joined the membership in 1962, while Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964. Under Hamilton’s watch, the name Pacific-8 Conference was adopted in 1968. In 1971, Wiles Hallock took over as Commissioner of the Pac-8.
Ten years later, on July 1, 1978, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University were admitted to the league and the Pacific-10 Conference became a reality. In 1986-87, the league took on a new look, expanding to include 10 women’s sports. Since then, the Conference has been considered the premier league in women’s athletics, securing the most NCAA titles in women’s sports of any conference nearly every year.
Thomas C. Hansen was named the Commissioner of the Pac-10 in 1983, a role he would hold for 26 years until 2009, when he was succeeded by Larry Scott who held the role from 2009 to June 30, 2021. Scott was succeeded by current Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff who was announced on May 13, 2021 and formally assumed the role on July 1, 2021.
The University of Colorado accepted its invitation to join the Pac-12 on June 11, 2010, and on June 17, 2010, the University of Utah agreed to join the Conference. The Conference became the Pac-12 and officially began competition on July 1, 2011.
It was during the 2010-11 academic year that Scott helped deliver monumental changes that transformed the Conference into a modern 12-team league. In addition to expanding to 12 teams, member institutions agreed to equal revenue sharing for the first time in the Conference’s history, created two football divisions – the North and the South, and established a Football Championship Game for the first time. He also secured landmark media rights deals with ESPN and FOX that dramatically increased national exposure and revenue for each school, in addition to establishing Pac-12 Networks which guaranteed enhanced exposure across all sports.
Currently, the Pac-12 sponsors 11 men’s sports and 13 women’s sports, with the most recent additions coming in the 2017-18 (women’s lacrosse) and 2015-16 (beach volleyball) academic years. Additionally, the Conference is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) in four other men’s sports and two women’s sports.
It begs the question how this story will conclude.
The UC Regents Are Meeting Today But Are They Going To File A Lawsuit?
As I write this, the UC Regents are meeting in closed session right now. The agenda reads as follows:
Agenda – Closed Session
B1(X) Discussion UC Berkeley Pac-12 Conference Membership
Closed Session Statute Citation: Litigation [Education Code §92032(b)(5)]
Where [Education Code §92032(b)(5)] reads: “Matters involving litigation, when discussion in open session concerning those matters would adversely affect, or be detrimental to, the public interest.”
In other words, the University of California is meeting to discuss a potential lawsuit. Here’s Zennie62 YouTube’s vlog explaining the rationale for such an action:
Stay tuned.