USA TODAY International Edition
Scott will leave top Pac- 12 post early
Pac- 12 Commissioner Larry Scott and the league’s CEO group have mutually agreed to terminate his contract one year ahead of schedule, the conference announced, ending his nearly 12- year tenure with the league which coincided with a series of dramatic changes across the national landscape of college sports.
Sports Business Journal was the first to report the news Wednesday.
His contract, which paid $ 5.4 million during the 2018 calendar year, the most recent available according to tax records, was to expire in June 2022. He’ll remain in the position until June 30 to assist in the transition to a new commissioner, the conference said.
The decision comes as the Pac- 12 is set to begin negotiations on the league’s next media- rights agreement.
“What I really enjoyed doing was transforming, growing, scaling, which I really had a tremendous chance to do in the first half- a- dozen years I was with the conference,” Scott told USA TODAY. “We expanded, started the TV network and TV deals, football championship game, helped create the ( College Football Playoff). But the last years really haven’t presented those opportunities and college sports is going in a different direction. Our conference needs to go in a different direction with some things.
“I think it’s good for the Pac- 12, too. Coming in with new leadership and new ideas will be healthy for the conference.”
Scott’s run with the Pac- 12 included the league’s expansion to 12 teams in 2011, a mammoth deal with ESPN and Fox, and the creation of a conference television network.
But his tenure more recently drew more criticism than praise, especially as the conference drifted out of contention for national championships in football and men’s basketball and the TV contract’s annual payout was dwarfed by deals cut by other Power Five leagues. The Pac- 12 trailed the Big Ten by roughly $ 250 million and the Southeastern Conference by roughly $ 190 million in total revenue during the 2019 fiscal year.
“The intercollegiate athletics marketplace doesn’t remain static and now is a good time to bring in a new leader who will help us develop our go- forward strategy,” said University of Oregon President Michael Schill, the chair of the Pac- 12 executive committee.
Scott, 56, led the Pac- 12 in negotiating the TV contract, a 12- year, $ 3 billion
deal announced in May 2011 that took effect with the beginning of the 2012- 13 school year and drastically increased the league’s annual revenue. Previously trailing even the now- defunct Big East in revenue, the deal pushed the Pac- 12 to the head of the class in the NCAA.
Then known as the Pac- 10, the league had total revenue of just under $ 112 million for the 2010- 11 fiscal year, according to conferences’ tax records. That was last among what was then the big six conferences; the Big East was secondto- last with $ 119 million. The Big Ten led with $ 265 million.
In the 2013 fiscal year, the Pac- 12’ s total revenue rocketed from $ 176 million to $ 334 million, putting the conference atop what had by then become the Power Five. Parallel to that, the conference launched the Pac- 12 Networks, at the time joining the Big Ten as the only leagues with their own TV footprint. Unlike the Big Ten Network, created as a shared venture with Fox, the Pac- 12 Networks is owned and operated only by the conference and Pac- 12 schools.
“I take a lot of pride in what our team has done and what the conference has done,” said Scott. “And I know this league is well- poised for its next TV deal.”
Also under Scott, the Pac- 12 led all Power Five conferences in enacting several notable changes to athletes’ rights and welfare. Announced in 2014 and phased in over the next two years, the conference’s schools began providing medical coverage for injuries suffered while playing for four years after an athlete’s graduation or separation from the school, or until the athlete turns 26, whichever comes first.
A year later, the Pac- 12 became the first Power Five league to give studentathletes a formal voice in conference governance, making them members of the four- person delegations that represent schools at the one- school, onevote governance meetings. In 2018, the conference began what it calls the Pac- 12 Concussion Coordinating Unit that involves the collection of data on head injuries for education and research purposes.
“I’m super proud of what we’ve done to extend benefits and involvement for our student- athletes,” Scott said.
“That’s obviously a huge focus right now, but the Pac- 12 has really been a leader in that area.”
Hired in 2009 from the Women’s Tennis Association, where he’d served as chairman and CEO, Scott quickly rallied the Pac- 12 through widespread expansion and nearly landed Texas and Oklahoma before the Longhorns decided to remain part of the Big 12. Instead, the league added Colorado and Utah.
Scott’s tenure coincided with a league- wide dry spell in football and men’s basketball. The Pac- 12 hasn’t placed a team in the College Football Playoff since the 2016 season and hasn’t played for the national title since Oregon lost to Ohio State in 2014. Only one Pac- 12 team, Oregon in 2017, has reached the men’s Final Four since 2009.