Canzano: Pac-12 Commissioner making good on promise to fight

“Teresa Gould cares about this conference to her bones.”

Teresa Gould was promoted to Pac-12 Commissioner in March. (Photo: Serena Morones)

Teresa Gould vowed in her introductory news conference that she’d fight.

Fight for Pac-12 athletes.

Scrap for her two schools.

“I want to be that leader,” Gould said.

I thought about those words on Friday when Jon Wilner revealed that the Pac-12 is in strategic discussions with multiple conferences. The conversations aren’t about Oregon State and Washington State joining one of those leagues. They’re more about the Beavers and Cougars forming scheduling alliances and building bridges.

“It’s all at a very broad level,” per the report.

Gould, a long-time conference lieutenant, was formally promoted to the job of commissioner on March 1. In a few short months, she’s scrapped with the SEC and Big Ten, increasing her conference’s College Football Playoff distribution from $300,000 to $3.6 million and negotiated a football TV deal with The CW and Fox. Now, she’s busy plowing ahead, forging relationships with the Power 4.

This isn’t a Big 12 invitation. It’s not the ACC offering membership, either. But it’s important to note that the Pac-12 has a motivated leader in its corner who doesn’t appear content to sit around waiting for something fortunate to happen.

As Douglas Macarthur said: “The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.”

Pat Chun left the athletic director position at Washington State for Washington. Kirk Schulz, the WSU president, is leaving his post next summer. I’ve wondered for a while how those key losses might submarine the Pac-12’s mission to either join another conference or rebuild to eight teams by the summer of 2026.

Scott Barnes, Oregon State’s AD, needs to stay healthy and stick around. So does Jayathi Murthy, the campus president in Corvallis. She’s a scrapper, too. And Anne McCoy, the new AD at WSU, needs to lace up the gloves. But I hadn’t thought much about the importance of Gould’s role in recent weeks, that is until Friday’s news.

Forgive me. After the acts of Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, I’d lowered the bar for Pac-12 commissioners. But Gould, who grew up in a small farm town in Iowa, appears to be every bit the fighter she promised she’d be.

Remember the story I shared on the day of Gould’s Pac-12 promotion?

She wanted to play softball in elementary school. But her town was so small that it didn’t have a team. Gould and her father fought city and league officials for a year, lobbying to let her play on the boys’ baseball team. Once they realized she wasn’t going to quit and go away, they relented. Kids who grew up there will tell you Teresa Gould was a hell of a third baseman.

She’s always been a relentless force. Several outgoing Pac-12 staff members told me in recent months they believed Gould would go to the mattresses for Oregon State and Washington State. Ashley Adamson, the former Pac-12 Network anchor, put it best on her way out the door: “Teresa Gould cares about this conference to her bones.”

I’ve talked with Gould several times in recent months. I watched her work the room at the Pac-12’s media day in Las Vegas. That she’s having behind-the-scenes conversations with multiple conferences — Power 4 and otherwise — isn’t a surprise.

Friday (Aug. 2) was a tough day for the “Pac-2,” as outsiders sometimes call the conference. Gould hates it when people say that. She’s instructed her staff not to use that terminology. But at midnight on Thursday night, it’s precisely where Oregon State and Washington State found themselves.

The Big 12 welcomed four new schools, officially. The ACC trumpeted the arrival of Stanford and Cal as new members. And the Big Ten rolled out its map, featuring the four new schools. That Gould has been spending her days back-channeling and looking for a path out of this mess is worth noting.

The Big 12 isn’t interested in adding the Beavers and Cougars right now. But Brett Yormark’s conference covets TV windows. The ACC is amid an existential crisis, trying to hang onto Florida State and Clemson.

Chaos is the Pac-12’s friend right now.

As Barnes, the Oregon State AD, told me earlier this year: “We will pry every door open we can to have conversations.”

OSU and WSU are hoping for a crack in the door. But I love that Gould is out front, trying to kick the thing off the hinges right now. At the very least, we may see scheduling alliances born from this that will give Oregon State and Washington State better football and men’s basketball schedules. And in the best case, it positions the two schools and their Pacific Time Zone TV windows, as a fallback option for the ACC or a strategic play for the Big 12.

I also think a handful — but not all — of the Mountain West schools are appealing to the Pac-12. The ones with TV value know who they are. If it comes to a rebuild to eight members, I wonder how much of Gould’s conversations with Power 4 members might play into who joins the Pac-12.

Months ago, Gould vowed she would fight.

It looks and sounds like she is.

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