The Hotline mailbag publishes weekly. Send questions to wilnerhotline@bayareanewsgroup.com and include ‘mailbag’ in the subject line. Or hit me on Twitter/X: @WilnerHotline
Please note: Some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity.
With the Pac-12 too big for their britches and losing 10 members last year, how did the remaining two again overplay their hand a year later with such poor strategy? — @vakaviti
Would you agree that everything went downhill for the Pac-12 when it was turned down by the AAC schools? — @luigi8604
Those are perfectly reasonable reactions given the whiffs on the three American conference schools and then, a few days later, failing to land UNLV.
Our view: The Pac-12’s underlying strategy is fairly sound, but it has (badly) lost the narrative this week. The conference appears to be flailing as it seeks an eighth full-time member.
Longtime Pac-12 watchers won’t be surprised. The messaging has been horrendous for years, ever since former commissioner Larry Scott began receiving heavy criticism — on the Hotline and elsewhere — in the mid-2010s for his misguided media strategy, lavish spending and top-down management style.
Scott’s response was to create a messaging culture that prioritized Scott, instead of what was best for the conference — one of many instances of the entire dynamic being flipped on its head.
The flawed communications strategy continued through the most turbulent time, when Scott’s successor, George Kliavkoff, attempted to secure a media rights deal. The drawn-out process received heavy fire, and Kliavkoff declined to respond appropriately with forceful messaging.
Not surprisingly, the criticism undermined faith in Kliavkoff’s leadership and ultimately contributed to the breakup of the conference in the summer of 2023.
The situation improved as the two remaining members, Washington State and Oregon State, made all the right strategic moves and blasted their message to the college sports world: They would be patient, tactical and efficient.
That narrative lasted through the initial expansion wave two weeks ago, when the Pac-12 landed Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State under the cover of darkness and created a six-school foundation for the future.
But this week? Yikes.
Our sense has always been that the conference was pursuing multiple strategies for the second phase of its rebuilding project. But you’d never know it. The optics pointed exclusively to the AAC schools as the only targets — and risky ones, at that.
Without guaranteed media revenue to dangle in front of Memphis, South Florida and Tulane, the conference relied on revenue projections. That was a tough sell for schools on the other side of the country that would be making more of a lateral move than an ascent of the college football hierarchy.
Once the AAC trio collectively declined the invitation, the Pac-12 landed Utah State as the seventh member but could not get UNLV … little old UNLV.
It’s a terrible look.
The reality, in our view, is quite different — and it’s rooted in two interconnected components.
— First, the Pac-12 got the schools it needed in order to raise the competitive bar and …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
