Canzano: Is there another move out there for the Pac-12?
A look at Teresa Gould's mission.
Teresa Gould’s father, Bill, started as a farmer. He stepped away, went to school at Iowa State, and landed in agricultural lending. He made a career out of helping farmers and ranchers find the resources to plant crops and herd livestock.
“At times,” she told me. “It was very stressful.”
Bill drank his morning coffee out of a mug his daughter gave him for Father’s Day when she left Iowa to go to work in California years ago. It has the outline of both states on the side, along with a phrase: “The love between a father and daughter knows no distance.”
“When he died in 2018, my mother gave it back to me,” Teresa told me. “He was my hero and best friend.”
She washed it out and drank from that mug on Wednesday — the first morning of the newly reconstituted Pac-12. As a father of three girls, the thought warmed me. And I’ll bet Bill would have loved that.
The Pac-12 was a “table for two” when Gould was hired by Oregon State and Washington State and charged with rebuilding it. She lured Gonzaga, five Mountain West schools, and Texas State. The conference hired a media consultant, negotiated a media deal, fought legal battles, hired staff, and is poised to begin competition.
Nine full-time members. Eight football-playing schools. A bunch of affiliates in a variety of sports. Is there another full-time member out there? Or just football-playing ninth school?
UNLV?
UConn?
Someone else?