Pac-12 Conference finally parting ways with Commissioner Doug Kliavkoff by the end of the month

Since taking over as commissioner of the Pac-12, Doug Kliavkoff has failed to secure a new long-term TV rights deal, let four schools depart for the Big Ten, four to the Big 12, and two to the ACC as the conference is all but dissolved at this point. Now his time with the Pac-12 has […]

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor

Feb 16, 2024 5:08 PM EST

Since taking over as commissioner of the Pac-12, Doug Kliavkoff has failed to secure a new long-term TV rights deal, let four schools depart for the Big Ten, four to the Big 12, and two to the ACC as the conference is all but dissolved at this point. Now his time with the Pac-12 has come to a predictable end.

This dismissal or "mutual parting of ways" between the Pac-12 conference and Kliavkoff was long overdue. The entire college football landscape has been changing and realigning during Kliavkoff's tenure as Pac-12 commissioner, so not all the blame can fall on one man, but it was time.

Texas and Oklahoma kicked off the chaos way back in 2021, announcing their intentions to leave the Big 12 conference to join the SEC. Then a year later USC and UCLA announced that they would be departing the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten. The dominoes were beginning to fall.

Kliavkoff had one job to do that could possibly help keep the rest of the Pac-12 schools together: secure the TV deal. But instead of securing a critical television deal for the conference he pushed for too much money and ended up allowing the Big 12 conference to sign the deal that the Pac-12 should have taken.

Once the remaining Pac-12 schools realized there was not going to be a lucrative TV deal coming the conference essentially completely disbanded, leaving only Oregon State and Washington State left to stand among the rubble.

Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA is now a part of the Big Ten. Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado joined the Big 12. Stanford and California, schools resting within a stone's throw of of the Pacific Ocean, will hilariously be joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. All of this essentially because Doug Kliavkoff couldn't secure the television deal to help the Pac-12 stay competitive.

It's apparently likely that deputy commissioner Teresa Gould will be promoted to replace Kliavkoff, at least in the short-term. The conference is still sorting out its future as a whole as it will never be the same ever again.