LOS ANGELES — It’s been about a month since the news that USC and UCLA are bolting for the Big Ten, and the disappointment and anger toward the two L.A. schools from inside the Pac-12 haven’t eased up much — if at all.
“It’s clear that UCLA and USC made a decision for short-term financial gain at the expense of their student-athletes,” Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff told The Athletic on Friday. “It’s 100 percent clear to me. It’s really unfortunate, and I think they are already regretting it, given the pushback that they’ve gotten from almost every corner of their communities. I think they will regret it more as time goes on.”
Kliavkoff was at the start of his first vacation since taking the commissioner job a year ago when the news broke. He was in Montana, driving to Idaho, in an area without much cellular reception when he received multiple texts from his deputy commissioner.
“The surprising part, to me, is the Pac-12 has a mission that is related to the health and well-being of its student-athletes, and this is a decision that, in my opinion, goes directly against the health and well-being of student-athletes. That’s the surprise for me.”
One Pac-12 athletic director told The Athletic on Friday that the most surprising aspect of the move was on the UCLA side, since it’s a public school connected to California-Berkeley, and the Bruins’ move has been ripped by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The University of California Board of Regents has ordered a review of how the decision unfolded.
“I wasn’t shocked because I’ve been in this business long enough, but I was surprised because I had accepted the notion that UCLA could not uncouple from Cal because of the whole regent thing,” another Pac-12 AD told The Athletic. “They’re governed by the same group, and it makes no logical sense that the same oversight board would vault one at the detriment, the expense, of the other. That is counter to their responsibility. That’s really where the surprise came in.
“Look at all the work Oklahoma and Texas had to do when, 12 years ago, the Pac-12 tried to raid them. But it was always Oklahoma State and Texas Tech coupling them, and that stopped it. So, obviously they’d learned their lessons, and whatever work they needed to get done behind the scenes to fix it, they did. UCLA obviously did no work because this should not be a political issue at this point. It’ll be interesting to see what happens at that hearing.”
Kliavkoff also did not hold back his feelings for Big 12 leadership in the wake of what he said have been numerous overtures to try to poach Pac-12 programs that, he says, have been forwarded to him from administrators in his league.
“I’ve been trying to focus on stuff that moves the conference forward, and I’ve been trying to spend as little time as possible responding to the fake news and nonsense that has come out of other conferences in an effort to destabilize us,” he said.
Asked about his relationship with Brett Yormark, Kliavkoff said he and the new Big 12 commissioner have talked a couple of times in the past month. “I told him I believe that college athletics is healthier when we have a healthy and vibrant Big 12 and a healthy and vibrant Pac-12. Having those votes in the CFP (College Football Playoff) room is valuable. We have those conversations, and then folks in his conference go out of their way to try and destabilize our conference. I keep reminding him of that, and it’s a repeating pattern.”
Kliavkoff declined to go into the specifics of how Yormark responded to that, other than adding, “It’d be in the best interest of college athletics if both conferences are strong. I know for a fact that we’re going to be strong, and I think if he does the right things, they’ll be fine.”
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