Speaker 1: Welcome to a special edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: We branch way out, way beyond the Arizona Cardinals and
Speaker 1: the National Football League. Today, our guests the commissioner of
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve Conference, George Kleiovko. The hot button issue
Speaker 1: right now in college sports is the College Football Playoff
Speaker 1: expansion model of twelve teams, which recently fell through. Where
Speaker 1: was the PAC twelve in all of this? What were
Speaker 1: Georgia's thoughts on what went down inside that room when
Speaker 1: they voted against the model, and what are his thoughts
Speaker 1: on where the PAC twelve is with regard to scheduling
Speaker 1: college football games, trying to be more of a player
Speaker 1: with television and getting an audience beyond the West Coast.
Speaker 1: I would like for our best teams, particularly late in
Speaker 1: the season, if they put themselves in a position for
Speaker 1: a CFP invitation or for a Heisman Trophy vote, to
Speaker 1: be able to highlight them earlier in the day as
Speaker 1: a post to playing in the nighttime West Coast game.
Speaker 1: Also the nil name, image and likeness. How is that
Speaker 1: shaping the future of college sports? George is very familiar
Speaker 1: with all of this, even though he's in month number
Speaker 1: nine as the commissioner of the conference. He was the
Speaker 1: president of Entertainment in Sports for MGM Resorts. He worked
Speaker 1: with Major League Baseball, with the National Hockey League and
Speaker 1: bringing the Golden Nights to Las Vegas, so he's very
Speaker 1: familiar with putting on a show with regard to sports
Speaker 1: and making sports entertainment. They'll talk about that and much more.
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Speaker 1: eight hundred next step here. He is the commissioner of
Speaker 1: the PAC twelfth Conference. George kleof Coff Well, George, first
Speaker 1: of all, I really appreciate you doing this. This is
Speaker 1: actually primarily an NFL podcast through the Arizona Cardinals and
Speaker 1: my job as the play by playhouse for the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: but we branched out and done guests from the entertainment world,
Speaker 1: from the NBA and college sports as well. We had
Speaker 1: Kirk curb Street on during the college football season, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to get you on to talk college football,
Speaker 1: to talk college basketball, but to start by talking about
Speaker 1: what the first eight months on the job have been
Speaker 1: like for you in this position. Yeah, no, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1: The joke is that the last eight months have been
Speaker 1: the most interesting decade of my career. My timing was impeccable.
Speaker 1: I started on July first, which was the first day
Speaker 1: of nil Mame image and likeness is a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks after the Alston decision by the Supreme Court, and
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks before we found out about conference
Speaker 1: realignment with Texas and Oklahoma, you know, leaving the Big
Speaker 1: Twelve together to the SEC eventually. So it's been challenging.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of stuff going on. I would
Speaker 1: say personally, it's been humbling and motivating to work with
Speaker 1: our world class universities and to support the amazing student
Speaker 1: athletes that we get to work with. So unprecedented change,
Speaker 1: but but very exciting for me. And I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a guy with a long background in history
Speaker 1: in college athletics, which was a new space for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned your timing. I mean, this is the wildest
Speaker 1: time that I can remember in my forty nine years
Speaker 1: on this planet for college sports and just everything that's
Speaker 1: going on. You talked about nil and you you know
Speaker 1: everybody right now that the hot topic is college football
Speaker 1: and I want to get there in a second. But
Speaker 1: your history in charge of being the president of Entertainment
Speaker 1: in sports for MGM Resorts, how do you feel like,
Speaker 1: I know you've talked about this else where or else
Speaker 1: we're maybe a little bit more in depth here. How
Speaker 1: do you feel like that shaped you for this job
Speaker 1: and the challenges that being the commissioner of a major conference?
Speaker 1: What that requires. Well, I've been in sports and media
Speaker 1: and digital technology for twenty five plus years. In my
Speaker 1: career in different places professional sports as well as as
Speaker 1: you mentioned MGM Resorts. I worked for Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: Advanced Media, and I've worked for big media companies, And
Speaker 1: you know, I think of sports and what we do
Speaker 1: as kind of a subset of entertainment, and you know,
Speaker 1: we have other issues that we have to address because
Speaker 1: of the unique nature of our student athletes. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, we're putting on a show,
Speaker 1: and we're creating made for television content. And I think
Speaker 1: lessons learned at MGM Resorts and at Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: and working for media companies really aligned well with what
Speaker 1: we're trying to to do, particularly for the PAC twelve,
Speaker 1: which you know has less than two and a half
Speaker 1: years left on all of our current media rights deals
Speaker 1: and we're just starting the process of renegotiating those. When
Speaker 1: we think about that, we have to think about what's
Speaker 1: great for our media partners and our fans and our
Speaker 1: student ATHLETs. What made for TV programming should we be creating? Well,
Speaker 1: the only VSPN just yet, George, feel like we're just
Speaker 1: getting started with even though it's with Bill and obviously
Speaker 1: doing the college football games on the PAC twelve. What
Speaker 1: would you say your goals are that you know you
Speaker 1: want to accomplish not just for the conference, but to
Speaker 1: for college sports in general in the direction where college
Speaker 1: sports is going. Yeah, I mean, I'll talk about college
Speaker 1: sports sport broadly in a second. But but we've had
Speaker 1: since I started. I think I actually announced it when
Speaker 1: I was introduced months before I started, We've had four
Speaker 1: key priorities for the PAC twelve and just an order
Speaker 1: of kind of priority. The first is, historically our conference
Speaker 1: has been the best in class in supporting student athletes.
Speaker 1: We've been ahead of the game on benefits for student athletes,
Speaker 1: We've been ahead of the game on diversity equity inclusion issues.
Speaker 1: We were the first conference, as an example, to include
Speaker 1: student athletes in our government structure, and that's a leadership
Speaker 1: role that I want to continue to extend for the conference.
Speaker 1: Second priority is related to football and men's basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: we are a Power five conference that hasn't won one
Speaker 1: of those two sports a national championship in seventeen years,
Speaker 1: and I think that's just a really difficult position to
Speaker 1: be in and an unfortunate position and inconsistent with our
Speaker 1: history going back of being very strong in those sports.
Speaker 1: So everything we can do at the conference level to
Speaker 1: optimize for CFP invitations and men's basketball tournament invites and seating,
Speaker 1: we're going to do. Our third priority is to continue
Speaker 1: our leadership position and being the conference of champions despite
Speaker 1: kind of that drout in those two sports, we've dominated
Speaker 1: all the other sports when we gets fifty three of
Speaker 1: the last sixty years, including each of the last sixteen years,
Speaker 1: we've won more national championships than any other conference, and
Speaker 1: we intend to continue that and extend it. And then
Speaker 1: finally four fourth priority is what I mentioned before, which
Speaker 1: is we have all of these media rights steals coming
Speaker 1: up for renegotiation, and we have to balance how we
Speaker 1: think about renegotiating those media rights steals and who we
Speaker 1: choose to be our partner or partners in that space
Speaker 1: with revenue and mind certainly, the money that we distribute
Speaker 1: from our media rights steals is what supports a lot
Speaker 1: of our student athlete programs, but we also have to
Speaker 1: look at broader exposure and flexibility with how and when
Speaker 1: we play our games to allow us to continue to
Speaker 1: compete competitively in all of these sports. So along those lines, George,
Speaker 1: and it's just something Larry Scott, your predecessor, had discussed.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on you know, noon Eastern kicks
Speaker 1: but they're ninety local kicks on a Saturday, to try
Speaker 1: to get the PAC twelve viewer into that early window
Speaker 1: on ESPN or on Fox, or you know, having games
Speaker 1: on different nights. Obviously, Thursdays and Fridays have been you know,
Speaker 1: long standing, there have been games in the pac twelve
Speaker 1: on both those nights. But can you just talk about
Speaker 1: with regard to scheduling, Yeah, listen, I think there it's
Speaker 1: all trade offs. Right. We have played nine am bodyclock games.
Speaker 1: I was at the game where Oregon beat Ohio State
Speaker 1: at the horses Shoe earlier this year. That was a
Speaker 1: nine am Oregon bodyclock kickoff and we did very well.
Speaker 1: Making that a regular programming feature on the West Coast
Speaker 1: I think might be a little bit more difficult. But
Speaker 1: here how I think about it, we are the only
Speaker 1: Power five conference that has teams in the Mountain and
Speaker 1: Pacific time zones until BYU joins the Big twelve and
Speaker 1: a couple of years, and as a result, we are
Speaker 1: able to provide programming in a primetime West Coast window
Speaker 1: for our partners at ESPN and at Fox and others
Speaker 1: can't provide. That's really, really valuable, and we get paid
Speaker 1: a premium to do that. Now, that comes at a cost, right.
Speaker 1: Part of the cost is in the stadium. It's harder
Speaker 1: to build kind of family traditions of going to games
Speaker 1: when the young kids of the game and starting at
Speaker 1: seven thirty or eight o'clock on a Saturday night kids
Speaker 1: might not be able to stay up for that. Part
Speaker 1: of it is national costs, right. We have games that
Speaker 1: are played whereby halftime, seventy five percent of the population
Speaker 1: of the country is most likely not watching the game
Speaker 1: because they're in bed, and that hurts us for AP
Speaker 1: votes and CFP votes and Heisman Trophy votes if we're
Speaker 1: focused on football and we just have to balance those.
Speaker 1: So do I want to play and be more creative
Speaker 1: and be more flexible about playing in different time slots. Absolutely? Do.
Speaker 1: I want to work with our media partners to have
Speaker 1: a little bit more control over which of our teams
Speaker 1: played at which time slots. Absolutely. I would like for
Speaker 1: our best teams, particularly late in the season, if they
Speaker 1: put themselves in a position for a CFP invitation or
Speaker 1: for a Heisman Trophy vote, to be able to highlight
Speaker 1: them earlier in the day as opposed to playing in
Speaker 1: the night time West Coast game. That doesn't mean we
Speaker 1: won't be playing a game then, it just maybe two
Speaker 1: different teams. Before we jump into the college football playoff
Speaker 1: expansion discussion. I'm curious do you think, Georgie, that you're
Speaker 1: the only commissioner that tweets out about shuffling Dre Snoop
Speaker 1: and Eminem for his music listen in the morning. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I see Jim Phillips, the ACC commissioner,
Speaker 1: or Greg Sanky in doing that, but I think I
Speaker 1: think Greg, thank you, and I are the only ones
Speaker 1: who routinely use Twitter personally as opposed to the conference.
Speaker 1: All of our conferences use Twitter, but Greg, Greg and
Speaker 1: I seem to be active on Twitter and follow each other.
Speaker 1: And what I would say is Greg's an intellectual. Greg
Speaker 1: often tweets out what the last book is that he
Speaker 1: read and why it's important to him. I'm focused on
Speaker 1: you know, when I'm not talking about conference stuff, I'm
Speaker 1: focused on music, and I'm focused on fishing and other stuff.
Speaker 1: And I think that probably explains the difference between Greg
Speaker 1: and I. He's very cerebral now. But I appreciated that tweet.
Speaker 1: I saw that, and then I also saw some of
Speaker 1: your your tweets with a fish that you caught. There
Speaker 1: are fish stories, but you actually have proof as you
Speaker 1: tweeted out a picture of you or it actually might
Speaker 1: have been your abbey on your Twitter at one point
Speaker 1: with you and yeah, that was a I went ice
Speaker 1: fishing for the first time last month outside of Jack
Speaker 1: and how Wyoming. And it was on a Friday, and
Speaker 1: you know, I took Friday off and I kind of
Speaker 1: felt proud of myself for taking a Friday off in
Speaker 1: the middle of the basketball season. And the fact that
Speaker 1: I caught a bunch of fish was great and I
Speaker 1: was happy to share it. But the message there was
Speaker 1: really I'm taking a personal day, and I was encouraging
Speaker 1: the other folks who worked for the Pac twelve to
Speaker 1: take personal days as well. I think recharges is important,
Speaker 1: particularly in this job. This is a twenty four seven,
Speaker 1: three sixty five job, or there is no downtime in college.
Speaker 1: I bought a three face well, I often take personal days.
Speaker 1: George the day after working with Bill Walton, who you
Speaker 1: know very well. Bill. He is a big champion of
Speaker 1: the Conference of Champions. How much time have you spent
Speaker 1: with Bill and what was your first experience like with him? Well,
Speaker 1: as a fan, I have listened to him and watched him,
Speaker 1: you know, on games for a long long time before
Speaker 1: I actually met him. I met him when I was
Speaker 1: at MGM Resorts in Vegas, and you know, part of
Speaker 1: my responsibility was we ran the Mandeliday Event Center where
Speaker 1: the women's basketball tournament for the PAC twelve is, NT
Speaker 1: Mobile Arena where the men's basketball Championship is. And you know,
Speaker 1: as the person who was running sports and entertainment at MGM,
Speaker 1: it's just natural that you run across Bill and get
Speaker 1: introduced to Bill. And I was quite surprised in advance
Speaker 1: of one of the tournaments. I think it was a
Speaker 1: couple of years back. You know, he found my number
Speaker 1: called Bay and he said, I want to know all
Speaker 1: about MGM. I want to know about T Mobile. I
Speaker 1: want to know about um, you know, everything that you
Speaker 1: guys do and how T mobile fits into that and
Speaker 1: how to PAC twelve fits into that. And what I
Speaker 1: found is that he's just incredibly diligent about doing the homework,
Speaker 1: you know, before he gets on the air and then
Speaker 1: he drops all these little tickets, as you know better
Speaker 1: than I do, but that those tickets come from lot
Speaker 1: and lots of work behind the scenes before the game starts.
Speaker 1: And I was the subject of a lot of that
Speaker 1: when I was before I joined the conference. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think at one point you might have actually been
Speaker 1: part of Walton Bingo. There might have been a square
Speaker 1: with your name on it because there was where you
Speaker 1: are getting a lot a lot of mentions, and you know,
Speaker 1: with your work in connection to the city of Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, what's the reception of the Raiders been like
Speaker 1: there and how do you see that continuing to grow
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Well, Listen, I think all professional sports that
Speaker 1: have come to Vegas have seen great success. Right. I
Speaker 1: was very fortunate at MGM to oversee and run the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Aces, which is a w NBA team that
Speaker 1: we brought to Las Vegas several years back. One of
Speaker 1: the last things I did at MGM before I left
Speaker 1: was to actually sell the Aces to Mark Davis, who
Speaker 1: owns the Raiders. As I mentioned running T Mobile Arena,
Speaker 1: we were the beneficiaries of the Vegas Golden Knights expansion team,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe the most successful expansion team in the
Speaker 1: history of professional sports, making the Stanley Cup Championship their
Speaker 1: first year out of the gate and being the playoffs
Speaker 1: every year. And the Raiders I think will find great
Speaker 1: success there. And it's good for the Raiders. I think
Speaker 1: they have a home and to have passionate fans that
Speaker 1: you know, previously had not had an NFL team to
Speaker 1: root for, but I also think it's great for the city.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, more than two thirds of the
Speaker 1: folks who are in that stadium are traveling from out
Speaker 1: of town come to Vegas to go to those games.
Speaker 1: Most of those traveling teams are raiders fans from California
Speaker 1: and other places, but there are also lots of fans
Speaker 1: from visiting teams, and that really helps the economy here
Speaker 1: in Vegas. So I think it's a great thing. So
Speaker 1: let's shift gears to college football. In the recent news,
Speaker 1: George about playoff expansion not happening, falling through. Not sure
Speaker 1: if that's the best way to describe it, but I
Speaker 1: think for you know, for people that were hoping that
Speaker 1: there would be an expansion beyond the four teams to
Speaker 1: twelve before the contract runs out in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: the hope was that you guys would have been able
Speaker 1: to get something done that didn't happen where And I
Speaker 1: read that the PAC twelve is one of three conferences,
Speaker 1: to the other two being you know, the Big ten
Speaker 1: in the ACC part of the alliance with you guys
Speaker 1: that you guys voted against it. I know you had
Speaker 1: talked publicly a lot about being a proponent for expansion.
Speaker 1: So can you just kind of tell everybody you know
Speaker 1: the timeline of that, did something change along the way,
Speaker 1: what ultimately was it about the YEA, yeah, I'll try
Speaker 1: to make it as clear as possible. And again you
Speaker 1: have to balance, like I really think one of the
Speaker 1: mistakes we've made is to announce a formula that not
Speaker 1: everyone that needed to agree to it had agreed to yet,
Speaker 1: and to miss out the expectations. So to get into
Speaker 1: the details of who said what in the room, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do that, but at a very high level,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you kind of what's public and will explain
Speaker 1: what happened the way that the construct currently is for
Speaker 1: college football playoffs. If you want to change the format
Speaker 1: or anything else during the current term, you need unanimous
Speaker 1: consent from all eleven people who get to vote, and
Speaker 1: the vote comes from the Board board of the CFP,
Speaker 1: which is made up of eleven presidents and chancellors, one
Speaker 1: from each of the ten FDS conferences and Father Jenkins
Speaker 1: from Never Dame. And there's a Board of Managers, which
Speaker 1: are the ten conference commissioners and the athletic directors of
Speaker 1: neverdain that make recommendations to the board on how to vote,
Speaker 1: but eventually the board has to vote, and you need
Speaker 1: eleven yes votes to change anything within the current term.
Speaker 1: And the proposal came down with the twelve teams, you know,
Speaker 1: six automatic qualifiers, six at large playing games in December,
Speaker 1: four games New Year's weekend, and then semifinals and finals
Speaker 1: and later in January. And I actually think there's quite
Speaker 1: a lot to be sent for that formula. We had
Speaker 1: some issues with it specific timing, you know, where the
Speaker 1: playing games would be played, you know, some academic and
Speaker 1: kind of student health issues that we actually worked through.
Speaker 1: And if the question at her hand would have been
Speaker 1: do you want to expand for years eleven and twelve
Speaker 1: in the twelve team proposed model, our vote would have
Speaker 1: been yes. And I think despite the fact that our
Speaker 1: vote would have been yes, it would not have passed
Speaker 1: because the other two conferences that you mentioned are on
Speaker 1: the record saying they would not have voted for it
Speaker 1: for different reasons. The acc just doesn't think it's the
Speaker 1: right time to expand, and the Big Ten has publicly
Speaker 1: said that they don't think six automatic qualifiers to the
Speaker 1: sixth highest ranked conference champions is appropriate. They think each
Speaker 1: of the Power five should get an automatic qualifier, and
Speaker 1: then one automatic qualifiers should go to the next highest
Speaker 1: ranked conference champion. So I would have voted yes, but
Speaker 1: that wasn't the vote. The vote was, will you agree
Speaker 1: to expand to the twelve team playoff for years eleven,
Speaker 1: twelve and beyond, you know, like years thirteen and beyond.
Speaker 1: And what we have in year thirteen and beyond is
Speaker 1: no current contractional commitment to each other. There's no granted rights,
Speaker 1: there's no there's no contract. So what you need to
Speaker 1: expand beyond that is just enough people to say they
Speaker 1: want to agree on playing in a certain format and
Speaker 1: then move forward. And I'm in favor the patch twelve
Speaker 1: is in favor of all sorts of different extensions formats.
Speaker 1: We've been in favor of twelve teams eighteen six plus six,
Speaker 1: five plus one plus, which is what the Big ten
Speaker 1: has asked for. And the only thing I said is
Speaker 1: there are some issues that we need to resolve before
Speaker 1: I could vote yes or that. And the one that
Speaker 1: gets widely reported is the rose Pole. We can talk
Speaker 1: about that, animate that's a tiny little issue. Set that aside.
Speaker 1: The other thing I said is I also want to
Speaker 1: know whether we're sticking with the current revenue split or
Speaker 1: whether people are proposing changing the revenue split understanding that
Speaker 1: the pie will be bigger, there'll be more money if
Speaker 1: you're playing more games. And the answer I got is
Speaker 1: we're not going to commit to the current revenue split
Speaker 1: and we're not going to discuss that. So are you
Speaker 1: voting yes or no? And in my life, I've never
Speaker 1: voted or signed a contract. I don't know the financial
Speaker 1: terms of the contract, so I was forced to vote no.
Speaker 1: I would much rather have agreed on expansion. I continue
Speaker 1: to want to do the work behind the scenes to
Speaker 1: solve the open issues. Are open issues issues, open issues,
Speaker 1: Big Ten's open issues. I think we're going to get there,
Speaker 1: But what I really hope is that we actually do
Speaker 1: the work first and then announce the outcome, as opposed
Speaker 1: to announce what a couple of people have agreed to
Speaker 1: and then hope everybody else comes along. So and I
Speaker 1: do want to get to the Rose Bowl, because yeah,
Speaker 1: people have brought that up as a you know, as
Speaker 1: a proposed sticking point. Why were there so many that
Speaker 1: voted for expansion not knowing the financials beyond twenty twenty five. Well,
Speaker 1: I think several of them probably think that they deserve
Speaker 1: more of the financials and or you know, may or
Speaker 1: may not want to demand that. I think others are
Speaker 1: desperate for access to the CFP and would have voted
Speaker 1: for anything that gave them access. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: can't speak for other commissioners. I don't know the answer.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to get there anyway. And the
Speaker 1: other I guess the other thing focus on is if
Speaker 1: we know, because we can't get a unanimous boat, that
Speaker 1: we're not expanding in years twenty four and twenty five,
Speaker 1: and we're really talking about what does it look like
Speaker 1: in twenty six and beyond. We got a couple of
Speaker 1: years to figure that out, and lots of other stuff
Speaker 1: is going on in college athletics that we could hopefully
Speaker 1: settle or resolve or get a little bit more piece
Speaker 1: around before we have to decide this. This is not
Speaker 1: the highest priority, and I think kind of putting it
Speaker 1: on the back burner for a little while is helpful.
Speaker 1: So touch on the rose bowl if you ken, George,
Speaker 1: and then just if you can follow up on what
Speaker 1: you just said about issues that are more important, maybe
Speaker 1: kind of give us a sense of you know in
Speaker 1: your mind what those issues are. Yeah, So just quickly
Speaker 1: on the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowls, as have all
Speaker 1: of the other Year six bowls, and the particularly the
Speaker 1: contract balls, have been very flexible as the playoffs have
Speaker 1: developed and expanded. And as an example, you know, one
Speaker 1: every three years in the current cycle, the Rose Ball
Speaker 1: doesn't get to play on the day in time it
Speaker 1: wants to play. It plays later, and it plays as semifinal.
Speaker 1: So what I would say is, in the twelve team
Speaker 1: proposed model, each of the six New Year's Day Bowl
Speaker 1: games would commit to play a semi sorry, the quarterfinal, quarterfinal, semifinal,
Speaker 1: and the quarterfinals would be on New Year's weekend. So
Speaker 1: two years out of three they'd be the Rose bol
Speaker 1: would be playing in its traditional time slot, and the
Speaker 1: third year it would be playing a semifinal or a
Speaker 1: week or two later. And the Rose Bowl has the
Speaker 1: right if they want. On the years where they're playing
Speaker 1: a semifinal, Tosti also host a traditional Rose Bowl, and
Speaker 1: I don't know whether they would do that or not,
Speaker 1: but they have the right to do that. Now, remember
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be getting my number one or two team
Speaker 1: against the big ten's one or two team, because if
Speaker 1: you put twelve teams into the playoffs, now they're getting
Speaker 1: my give or take third best team against the big
Speaker 1: tens give or take order fourth test team. If you
Speaker 1: look back over the last nine years of the CFP,
Speaker 1: so you've already kind of hams from what the Rose
Speaker 1: Bowl looks like. And what we were asking for is
Speaker 1: very simple. During the times if the Rose Bowl choose
Speaker 1: is to have one of those games every three years,
Speaker 1: we don't want the CFP to further harm the Rose
Speaker 1: Ball by counter programming a quarter final in that same
Speaker 1: three hour time slot on January first. So literally the
Speaker 1: protections we're asking for the Rose Ball is three hours
Speaker 1: every three years. And we've also said if other Bowl
Speaker 1: games want the same protection, we think it's worthy of
Speaker 1: giving them the same protection for their traditional time slots
Speaker 1: to the extent they have them during the New Year's weekend.
Speaker 1: And for me, that's like a very small ask that
Speaker 1: helps balance progress and expanding the CFP against the more
Speaker 1: than one hundred year tradition of the Tournament of Roses
Speaker 1: and the granddaddy of them all. That's a difficult balance,
Speaker 1: but it's what you're asking others to give up is
Speaker 1: counterprogramming three hours every three years. I think it's an
Speaker 1: incredibly small ask. I think the vast majority of people
Speaker 1: in the CFP room support that. I think there are
Speaker 1: a few folks that you know, would like to see
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl harm but the vast majority understand the
Speaker 1: tradition and the importance of balancing the tradition. There last
Speaker 1: one because I know you got to go, and another
Speaker 1: time maybe we can talk about the NCAA tournament. But
Speaker 1: I'm curious because you did mention there are some other
Speaker 1: things you think are more important right now in college sports,
Speaker 1: the need to be addressed. What would that be, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll give you four that I think are kind of
Speaker 1: top of mind right now, you know. So we we
Speaker 1: had in late June, the Supreme Court decided a case
Speaker 1: called Allston, which was whether or not the NCAA could
Speaker 1: create a limit on the educational benefits that we provide
Speaker 1: to our student athletes. And basically, the Supreme Court said,
Speaker 1: any decision you make that applies to everybody will be
Speaker 1: subject to any trust courtiny, and you can't make a
Speaker 1: broad decision that limits any school's ability to make a
Speaker 1: decision to provide those kind of benefits. I agree with
Speaker 1: that there happened to be a concurring opinion in that
Speaker 1: Supreme Court decision from Justice Kavanaugh that took it ten
Speaker 1: steps further and said, not only would it be subject
Speaker 1: to any trust courtiny, but your student athletes should be
Speaker 1: deemed to be employees. And I think if you go
Speaker 1: down that path, we have not done the work to
Speaker 1: determine all of the harms that that would create. I
Speaker 1: believe if our student athletes are deemed to be employees,
Speaker 1: you would be creating a really really bad situation for
Speaker 1: the student athletes. Right if you're an employee of a
Speaker 1: professional sport, you get to choose where you play or
Speaker 1: are you drafted? Can the schools trade you? Can the
Speaker 1: schools fire you of your employee if you're not playing well.
Speaker 1: Plus I think there would be knock on negative implications
Speaker 1: of that kind of a finding that would include probably
Speaker 1: a defunding of most or all of the other sports
Speaker 1: that are not profit generating. So I think that's a
Speaker 1: really slippery slope. So that's all stome Nil is something
Speaker 1: we're working through. The fact that we have a patchwork
Speaker 1: of state laws is a problem. We really need a
Speaker 1: federal kind of standard there, And for me, there are
Speaker 1: three right lines on name, image and likeness. One is
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be able to be used for inducement. I
Speaker 1: can't pay you to go to a particular school. Number Two,
Speaker 1: it should not be used as pay for play. I
Speaker 1: think everybody's in agreement with that as well. And then third,
Speaker 1: the payment for name, image and likeness has to be
Speaker 1: commiserate with the work required. Right. I think if we're
Speaker 1: paying a kid a million dollars to show up for
Speaker 1: an hour for the opening of a grocery store, I
Speaker 1: think that's not really paying that kid for his or
Speaker 1: her name imagining likeness, right, It's it's kind of hiding
Speaker 1: one of the other two things under the eyes of
Speaker 1: the name imagined likeness. But all those can be resolved
Speaker 1: with federal legislation. The two others that kind of jumped
Speaker 1: to mind is the NCAA decided to undergo a constitutional
Speaker 1: convention starting in July that is continuing through this year,
Speaker 1: and that's really about how will some subset of the
Speaker 1: schools within Division one or within the NCAA self government.
Speaker 1: How will we set our rules and force our rules
Speaker 1: and set kind of guidelines that make sense and run
Speaker 1: our championships. What's clear is it won't be kind of
Speaker 1: the way historically has been, which is kind of one
Speaker 1: rule for all of Division one, two or three that
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. And then lastly, you know, we had
Speaker 1: starting in July with the leaking of the news about
Speaker 1: Texas and Oklahoma, a bunch of conference realigned and issues
Speaker 1: that have not yet fully resolved themselves. You see schools
Speaker 1: suing conferences about when they get to leave their conference.
Speaker 1: We are very fortunate that the pat twelve and our
Speaker 1: friends at the Big ten and at the ACC all
Speaker 1: independently decided that, you know, all of our members are
Speaker 1: happy where they are and that we actually don't want
Speaker 1: to expand. And part of the reason why the alliance
Speaker 1: was formed and announced was when we have each independently
Speaker 1: come to that conclusion. We thought announcing that would actually
Speaker 1: add some stability to what, if you recall back in
Speaker 1: July and August was a vibrating kind of environment in
Speaker 1: which no one was comfortable. Everybody thought of my school
Speaker 1: could give poach to that conference or this conference. So
Speaker 1: a little stability we thought would help Lesten George, I
Speaker 1: appreciate the time. I know the two of us have
Speaker 1: not had a chance to connect in person yet, and
Speaker 1: with as you know, Fox having the Paxel Tournament this
Speaker 1: year for men's basketball, I won't be able to see it,
Speaker 1: but hope I'll have a Pack twelve football game this
Speaker 1: fall we'll be able to connect. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So a lot of new information there from Pack twelve
Speaker 1: Commissioner George Kleovkoff with regard to where the PAC twelve
Speaker 1: stood on playoff expansion for college football, the finances that
Speaker 1: were involved, also a little bit of the scheduling and
Speaker 1: how the twelve team model would have looked in terms
Speaker 1: of how far and deep into January it would have gone,
Speaker 1: and also what that would have meant for the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 1: It seems like maybe some of the reports about how
Speaker 1: important the Rose Bowl was in the decision by the
Speaker 1: PAC twelve to say no to the college football playoff
Speaker 1: expansion model seems like that was just a little bit
Speaker 1: overblown based on what George was saying there. We are
Speaker 1: presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of
Speaker 1: the Eurozona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to our guests, Pack twelve Commissioner George KLAIOF call,
Speaker 1: I'm Dave Pash. Thanks for listening to the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: H