When I heard Larry Scott and the Pac-12 braintrust had a new idea to make the league’s football product a little more relevant, I prepared to get snarky. I haven’t been particularly complimentary of the Pac-12’s leadership over the past few years.



Ticking off the nation’s largest satellite provider so much that it probably will never carry your network seemed like a poor long-term strategy. Choosing not to cover the first early football signing period at all on the conference channel seemed like a gross misunderstanding of football’s place as the chief revenue provider for all those Olympic sports that win national titles. Allowing an associate commissioner to dictate an officiating outcome during a game was a breach of the coaches’, players’ and consumers’ trust. The lack of agitation for an expanded College Football Playoff seems like a willingness to accept the league being left out out of the playoff in most years. Trying to...