James Snook, USA Today Sports
A barrage of mass defections put an end to the Pac-12 as we knew it Friday. When the dust settled, Washington State, Oregon State, California and Stanford were left as the league’s only members committed beyond 2024. While those schools are actively looking for a path forward, Washington State athletic director Pat Chun took a little time from his Wednesday press conference to lament on the potential loss of a conference that was long considered one of the cornerstones of college football. He also firmly pointed the finger at who he believes is to blame.
“There’s a century of history that has gone by the wayside because this conference has mismanaged itself on a bunch of different levels,” Chun said in a press conference Wednesday. “And when you have poor leadership, one of the outcomes is failure. That’s what has happened to the Pac-12.”
While the broad term “leadership” could be interpreted many ways, most would read Chun’s statement as an indictment on the two most recent Pac-12 commissioners Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff. Many consider their inability to close a media rights deal that could compete with the other power conferences as the main catalyst in the departures of Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.
Chun also called for better guidance from the top down in college football, painting a grim picture of what the future could look like without it.
“Until there’s better leadership as a whole, this is going to continue,” Chun said at…
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