Canzano: Pac-12 needs bold thinking

Commissioner Teresa Gould makes her first public appearance on Thursday.

Teresa Gould, right, is the new Pac-12 Commissioner. (Photo: Omer Khan)

A year ago this week, the Pac-12 was knee-deep in expansion planning. The conference presidents and chancellors held a board meeting in which they voted to approve further exploration of a quartet of schools that included San Diego State and SMU.

Conference Commissioner George Kliavkoff told his bosses he was confident they’d get a favorable media-rights deal. They vowed loyalty to each other and pledged to stay united. At the time, Kliavkoff believed getting more than $30 million per school was still a lay-up.

Plot twist?

One year later, Teresa Gould will make her first public appearance as the Pac-12 commissioner. She’ll conduct a Zoom meeting on Thursday with the media and answer questions alongside Washington State President Kirk Schulz. And I woke up Thursday thinking about how much has changed in the last 12 months.

Gould will set the tone for whatever comes next for the “Pac-2.” She’ll need to cast a strong presence in the coming months, but also have vision and be a bare-knuckle fighter.

At the end of June, 10 schools are leaving for other conferences. The Pac-12 will have two members armed with a $255 million war chest. The conference is essentially adrift in the stormy seas of major college athletics and determined to stay buoyant. Gould is the captain. It’s time for some strategic thinking.

Gould grew up in a small farming community in Iowa. 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 going to need to find that same determination and grit in the next year. But it’s the thinking part I’m especially interested in. The conference has its back against the wall, but the job requires more than throwing punches. The path forward will require a bold plan.

There’s been a lot of talk in the last few months about who will run the conference’s website, and manage the social media accounts. People wonder what will become of the Pac-12 Network and talk often about the operations side. But the conference doesn’t just need a manager — it needs a leader.

That’s the job for Gould.

I’m interested to hear what she says on Thursday. I’m curious to learn if there’s more to the Pac-12’s plan than waiting to see if the looming uncertainty in the ACC and the College Football Playoff might create another realignment opportunity.

One year ago today?

We didn’t know Colorado would be the first to bolt, fueled by a $2.5 million signing bonus from the Big 12. We didn’t know Oregon and Washington would re-engage with the Big Ten at the 11th hour and leave. We didn’t know Judge Gary Libey would end up a central figure in the ensuing legal drama.

The Pac-12 was founded in 1915 in downtown Portland in what used to be called the Imperial Hotel. It’s now Hotel Lucia. The conference had a wonderful run and made some amazing memories in the last 108 years. But it’s taking a new shape in July, and some believe the entity should just accept its fate, merge with the Mountain West, and be done with it.

Give up?

Go away?

That hasn’t been the position of Oregon State and Washington State. Those two schools went to the mattresses in the last six months, winning a settlement, and say they’d like to rebuild. They’ve picked Gould to lead.

George Kliavkoff’s final day on the job won’t be about him. He’s moved into the background and been replaced by that former Little League third baseman who refused to go away herself. Let’s see what she does next.

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