LOS ANGELES — For years, the Pac-12 touted itself as the “Conference of Champions.”

It was a tagline that appeared in every form of conference marketing, from TV commercials to swag to social media.

We get it. No other league has won more national championships across collegiate sports.

By now, the tagline has become an almost ironic statement. Sure, the league continues to rack up titles in sports like golf, volleyball and gymnastics.

And yet, there were no signs of golfers or gymnasts on Wednesday in Hollywood, where the Pac-12 stages its annual football media day.

Football gets its own fancy media day because football pays the bills in college athletics.

And in that sport, the Pac-12 has been nowhere near the conference of champions lately.

Only one Pac-12 team has participated in the College Football Playoff the last four years and the league has compiled a 13-19 record in bowl games during that span.

The lack of success on the field directly contributes to the conference’s financial shortcomings compared to other major conferences as playoff appearances lead to tens of millions in extra cash for the league.

Washington head coach Chris Petersen knows firsthand about that. His team won the Pac-12 last season and still missed out on the playoff. But on Wednesday, Petersen said the big-picture issues are due to a number of factors.

“It’s not any one thing. I think it all matters,” Petersen said. “The scheduling, the resources. It just all adds up. So it’s, ‘OK, how did this happen? How did we get here and not here?’ Now you’re playing catch-up again.”

And it’s a big gap to close.

View photos Washington head coach Chris Petersen answers questions during Pac-12 football media day on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) More

The Pac-12’s average revenue distribution per team in the 2017-18 fiscal year was reportedly $29.5 million, which was tied with the ACC for last place among Power Five conferences.

Even more alarming is just how far that number is behind the top two conferences, the Big Ten and SEC, which shelled out $54 million and $43.7 million, respectively, to its member schools.

This is a clear decline for the Pac-12, which was generating comparable dollar amounts to the SEC as recently as 2013, according to a New York Times report.

“We have to acknowledge many of the criticisms that the conference has received, and I can tell you that collectively we've taken a hard look at everything about how we're operating when it comes to football,” said Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott.

He downplayed the concern of the revenue disparity, saying those numbers tend to be cyclical and insisting the Pac-12 will bring in the big bucks when it strikes new TV contracts in 2024.

Former UCLA coach Jim Mora doesn’t share such a rosy projection.

“Face reality and set aside the pride and recognize that they don’t have a good enough deal to represent what the Pac-12 should be on a national level,” Mora said. “Go after it because it’s a great brand of football.”

But it goes beyond a TV contract. Mora, who led UCLA from 2012-17 and played at Washington in the 1980s, also says there’s also a dearth of talent and passion out west.

“Young men on the West Coast, recruits, high school kids, have so many more options in life than kids down south. … In the South, football is very much a religion, it’s extremely important,” Mora said. “It’s a focus from a time that they’re very, very young. There’s huge alliance to the conference, to the schools.”

Stanford coach David Shaw, entering his ninth year at the helm, disagrees. Instead, he harped on scheduling as a major point of contention. That goes for both the difficulty of the opponents and the time of day.

“It’s not a talent deficiency. A lot of it has to do with scheduling. We play nine conference games and for most of us it’s really hellacious out-of-conference schedules,” Shaw said. “You get to those times in November where you’re playing your fifth conference game in a row, and even though you’re on a roll you lose that big game and that late-season loss really hurts you. And you may be able to go to the conference championship game and win it but that late-season loss knocks you out of contention for that playoff spot.”

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