Why are teams leaving the Pac-12? Exploring George Kliavkoff's media failures with the conference and his future in the P5

The Pac-12 has seen multiple teams leave the conference and others contemplating their future. USC and UCLA were the first to make a move, announcing they are set to join the Big Ten.

Colorado, meanwhile, joined the Big-12 and now, reports of Utah, ASU, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon being uncertain are doing the rounds.

The Pac-12 was struggling to get a media rights deal, and then George Kliavkoff came forward with a streaming-heavy deal with Apple. However, the pay-per-school was not what other conferences get, so reports started to leak that teams were looking at leaving.

The news of the media rights deal was extremely disappointing, especially after commissioner Kliavkoff promised a great deal with how long it was taking:

“What we’ve seen is the longer we wait for the media deal, the better our options get,” Kliavkoff had said at Pac-12 football media day. “I think our board realizes that. There’s an underlying shift in the media market that’s happening and we’re long-term taking advantage of that, but short term it may have provided some hiccups.”

Of course, the Apple deal for the Pac-12 is roughly $10 million less than what Big-12 teams are getting. With that, several Pac-12 teams were disappointed and frustrated with the media rights deal and started to talk to other conferences about potentially moving and leaving the Pac-12.

Will George Kliavkoff remain commissioner?

Kliavkoff at a ceremony

If schools like Utah, Oregon, Washington, ASU, and Arizona do leave, what that means for the future of the Pac-12 and George Kliavkoff is uncertain.

Currently, there are reports that the Pac-12 could merge with the Mountain West Conference, which would at least keep the Pac-12 afloat for now.

If the Pac-12 does see those key teams leave, many will call for George Kliavkoff's job as he is leading the conference when it all is coming crashing down. The inability to keep the teams together and not getting a media rights deal was a turning point in the downfall of the Pac-12.

Especially due to the fact that Kliavkoff kept saying the Pac-12 is loyal and the media rights deal will be a good one:

“At this point, our 10 schools are completely focused on the future and being together… It’s now almost a running joke at our board meetings: ‘What’s the latest nonsense that someone has thrown against the wall and seeing whether someone will report?'”

Ultimately, there is no word on if Kliavkoff's job is on the line, but he's no doubt feeling the heat.