First Question for New Pac-12 Commissioner: How Do You Fix Football?
As the newly hired Pac-12 commissioner, George Kliavkoff fully anticipated the first media question on Thursday that would be directed his way on the virtual call introducing him, which enabled him to demonstrate his leadership priorities already in place.
Putting on his glasses, he pulled out prepared notes. Acknowledging the importance of this subject, he was ready with a detailed answer to this pressing inquiry.
How do you fix football?
"Everything is up for review to make us more competitive," said the MGM Resorts sports executive, who shared the Zoom call with University of Oregon president Michael Schill. "I want to be clear about that."
Narrowing it down, Kliavkoff pointed to two specific areas that can be addressed right away.
"I believe personally the solution to elevating Pac-12 football is a combination of structural issues and a more focused approach on recruiting," he said.
Foremost, Kliavkoff said he will join in the increasing effort to expand the College Football Playoff system from its four-team format to something greater, basically calling the current process unfair.
He cited statistics that showed participants in most NCAA sports have an 18 to 25 percent chance of advancing to their championship postseason.
In football, it's just 3 percent.
Kliavkoff said over 71 percent of the time the CFP berths have been awarded to just four schools. He cited the recent NCAA basketball tournament as the need for change, where a sixth-seeded USC, 11th-seed UCLA and No. 12 Oregon State each advanced to the Elite Eight of that recent postseason event.
"We're going to push to expand the College Football Playoff," he vowed.
Furthermore, Kliavkoff said he would make more resources available, more technology, for Pac-12 football and its other sports to recruit athletes. The conference will use proven entities, possibly those from Silicon Valley, that have been successful in attracting and retaining talent.
He intends to address the non-conference and conference schedules and see what can be done better.
While the league's TV contracts and financial agreements won't be up for renewal for some time, Kliavkoff said the Pac-12 under his lead would look at game times and try to remedy that.
He said the conference will promote name, image and licensing agreements to benefit its athletes, noting that the different markets across the Pac-12 provide advantages that others don't have.
Kliavkoff said the league will invest in technology to give its athletes a greater access to social media tools.
He said high school athletes will become better informed on the value of an education from a conference school.
"We need to be more aggressive about teaching the legacy of the Pac-12 as the conference of champions," he said.
Kliavkoff takes over on July 1 from outgoing commissioner Larry Scott — roughly two months before the football season begins.
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