Larry Scott Fired As Pac-12 Commish - Hopefully This Is The Bottom

In an era where live sports have never been more in demand, how did the Pac 12, which branded itself as a "media company", fall hundreds of millions dollars behind? Easy answer, Larry Scott. The soon to be former commissioner of the Pac 12 will be relieved of duties June 2021, one year early on his deal.

Larry Scott was hired in 2009 to be the commissioner of what was then the Pac 10. A former tennis pro, he raised his profile while chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). He was given credit for increasing sponsorships, revenue and prize pools for the WTA while successfully lobbying for equal pay for women at Wimbledon and the French Open.

Coming into the 2009 season, UCLA basketball had just come off 3 straight Final 4 appearances and USC and Oregon were both ranked nationally top 10 in football. Larry Scott's business background seemed like it immediately paid dividends for the Pac 10, with the development of the conference television network, as well as discussions to expand by bringing Texas and Oklahoma into the conference. This would be the peak for Larry.

National powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma decided to stay put - the conference settling for Colorado and Utah. The newly minted Pac-12 Network rolled out to an audience of nobody. The Pac 12 headquarters moved from small offices to a compound in the most expensive part of the country, San Francisco. Rent coming in at a cool $7million per year. Officiating was led by someone with no on-field experience and became a comedy of errors. The Pac 12 became so desperate for attention, TV Broadcasters like Fox and ESPN were able to dictate the schedule, which led to pac 12 after dark, which might as well have been pac 12 after anybody cares.

The result was each school in the conference making $15-20million less PER YEAR than comparable conferences. Rather than building their own TV network from scratch, the SEC, BIG 10, and the ACC partnered with ESPN and FOX, immediately getting access to their infrastructure and marketing. The result was a more professional broadcast with national advertisement of their games.

All this and Larry Scott was still THE HIGHEST PAID COMMISSIONER in college athletics. He's earned an average of $5million per year for his incompetence and will walk away with almost $50million over his 11 years. He traveled to games by private jet, left by halftime and would stay in the master suites at the MGM, where the pac 12 basketball tournament was held. During the pandemic, as employees were being furloughed, Larry INCREASED his bonus. He wasn't just incompetent, he was a snake who used the conference as a personal piggy bank. He still owes the conference a loan of $1.9million, which he took INTEREST FREE to make the move to San Francisco.

This isn't even getting into all the micro issues he allowed to plague the conference which led to a death of our reputation by a thousand cuts. Quick example, USC and Stanford, 2 of the premier football programs, would be forced to play each other week 2 of the season. The conference's rationale was based on both schools wanting to keep their annual rivalry with Notre Dame. For an entity that referred to itself as a media company, the thought of taking your best entertainment and burying it in Act 1 is criminal. Speaking of scheduling, teams would be routinely forced to play a road Saturday game followed by a road Friday game, not only putting them at a competitive disadvantage, but also neglecting to factor in students' school work or stress to their bodies.

Flat out, Larry Scott was a massive failure. June 2021 can't get here soon enough to get rid of this clown.

Potential names to take his position include Oliver Luck, the former commissioner of the XFL and father of former Stanford QB Andrew Luck, as well as David Baker, the former Trojan and head of the NFL Hall of Fame.

Championships for the Pac 12 under Larry Scott:

Baseball (3), Softball (3), Men's Soccer (3), Women's Soccer (5), Men's Volleyball (1), Women's Volleyball (3)