SAN FRANCISCO — For a drowning man, Larry Scott was rather upbeat.

The commissioner of the Pac-12 conference stood at a podium welcoming everyone to a basketball media day that may be the new gold standard for awkward timing. While Scott was trying to tread water, drumming up enthusiasm for an underachieving league, here’s what is pulling his credibility under:

* His league office was under direct fire for massively undercutting its own integrity after a Yahoo Sports report Wednesday tied a conference administrator to interfering in officiating replay review decisions. The revelation calls into question the Pac-12’s commitment to player safety, to fair play and to an officiating process that is free of meddling.

* Half of the 12-team conference now has been name-checked in the ongoing federal investigation of college basketball — more than any other league. (The Southeastern Conference is the current runner-up at five.) Assistant coaches at USC and Arizona were fired after being indicted, and will stand trial in 2019. During the ongoing trial in Manhattan, four other Pac-12 schools have been pulled in: Oregon, UCLA, Utah and Washington.

Attorney questioning, testimony under oath and evidence obtained by the FBI has steeped the league in scandal. Among the allegations and revelations: former Utah star Kyle Kuzma was paid through a third party by a financial adviser; former Washington star Markelle Fultz was paid through a third party; Oregon offered an “astronomical amount” of money to land Brian Bowen II, and assistant coach Tony Stubblefield paid $3,000 to the Bowens on an unofficial visit; UCLA offered money to the Bowens through an AAU coach; and all kinds of shenanigans pertaining to Arizona. Thus far the Wildcats have faced allegations involving head coach Sean Miller, former assistants Emanuel “Book” Richardson and Joe Pasternack, and former players DeAndre Ayton and Rawle Alkins — in addition to allegedly being part of the Great Brian Bowen Bidding War.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott speaks during the Pac-12 NCAA college basketball media day Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) More

Those are the headlines in the self-proclaimed Conference of Champions. It’s so bad off the field that nobody is even talking about the league’s swooning football product, 21-year streak without a basketball national title or the Pac-12 Network distribution debacle.

That’s a lot of lousy on the plate of the guy who has been the highest-paid commissioner in college athletics. Scott made $4.8 million in 2016, according to a USA Today report from May. Not only that, but nine other Pac-12 staffers made more than $450,000 in 2016, USA Today reported.

The league is trailing well behind its conference competition in revenue and revenue-sport performance. But not in salaries for execs.

Scott did his best to fall on the football officiating grenade Thursday morning, about 13 hours after it went off. The problem pertains to the intrusive role of Woodie Dixon, the general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs for the Pac-12 — with oversight of football and officiating — in replay reviews in the command center at the conference headquarters. An officiating report from the Washington State-USC game Sept. 21 said a third party basically overruled a targeting call against a Cougars linebacker — a third party Yahoo Sports identified as Dixon.

Anyone with a shred of knowledge, a shred of objectivity and a shred of concern for player safety would label that play targeting. Same with the hit later in the game by USC linebacker Porter Gustin on Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew. To rule otherwise invites legitimate and highly accusatory questions about Dixon’s agenda — and why he was ever involved in the first place.

That’s why Scott knew he had to jump on this scandal Thursday morning. He acknowledged “a mistake” in having Dixon at all involved in replay review, and terminated that arrangement effective immediately.

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