The Pac-12 Conference Athletic Directors met with the Pac-12 CEO Group on Saturday in Las Vegas.

The setting: Las Vegas and The Aria Hotel.

No telling if the bosses got an up-close look at commissioner Larry Scott’s $7,500-a-night palace in The Aria’s Sky Suites. Scott was traveling with his wife and son in Vegas, so I’m thinking no. Also, an MGM source tells me that the Pac-12 commissioner also had a meeting room booked for the event.

The commissioner and chair of the CEO Group, Colorado Chancellor Philip DiStefano, held a media availability on Saturday night. They spun a merry, collegial tale, but I’m not sure anyone who saw it felt like anything was solved.

Some thoughts:

• Scott’s bosses know that firing him now will not only leave them on the hook for his $4.8 million-a-year salary through 2022, but serve as a bad look as the conference is trying to lure in a private-equity partner for its media rights. That said, I don’t think the CEO Group trusts Scott to stand out front alone anymore. It was never his strong suit. So having one of his bosses sitting beside him during the news conference on Saturday night was interesting.

• The men used the word “collaborative” in three distinct places during the news conference. It’s clear that the failure of Scott and the CEO Group to work well with the conference athletic directors was a talking point. They hit it three times.

• The Pac-12 football officiating scandal still isn’t over. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, and Scott tripped all over himself in the weeks after it broke. The news conference went to great lengths to talk about their independent investigation into the conference’s officiating. Scott called it, “good hygiene.” But I think we all know that the investigation is essentially a crisis-management effort launched after the Pac-12 badly eroded public trust. They don’t want to head to another college football season with fans wondering if the officiating can be trusted. Huge ongoing issue.

• It will be interesting to see if the athletic directors get more information about the financials of the conference. To this point, my AD sources say they’ve asked for, but haven’t received good answers about the expenses of the conference. They’d like to know if Larry Scott is using a chartered plane, limousines and marble soaking tub on every trip he bills to the conference. He’d like them to mind their own business, and let him soak in peace.

• In fact, Scott was asked about the conference’s exorbitant expenses by a reporter in the room on Saturday. Scott said, “We are right smack in the middle of Pac-12 Conference expenses compared to the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12.” I find that unbelievable given that his salary is double what the SEC and Big Ten commissioners make. Also, that the Pac-12 headquarters has rent ($6.9 million) that is not “smack in the middle” of what the Big Ten ($1.36 million) and SEC ($1) are paying. Also, I’ve talked with other Power Five commissioners. They’re not “first-cabin” people. Scott’s playing a cute game of semantics, of course. He will try to maintain that he SHOULD make double what his peers are paid because he’s not only running a conference, he’s also running a media network. Nevermind that neither is a success right now.

• When the commissioner was asked whether the ADs had seen the conference financials and expenses, he laid out a long, wordy response indicating that the conference performs an internal audit annually. What Scott won’t say -- and we all know why -- is that an independent review of the conference expenses/financials would not be good for his career trajectory. Again, the ADs aren’t looking necessarily for “missing” money folks. They’re wondering at what rate “Limo Larry” and his merry band of lieutenants have been burning money that could have been passed on to their bleeding athletic departments.

• On that note, can’t wait until we get more details about the travel expenses of Pac-12 Network President Mark Shuken. Those numbers may leak as soon as May, conference sources tell me. Scott hired Shuken, and allowed the executive to live in Southern California but work in San Francisco. As a result, Shuken traveled frequently from Southern California to the Bay Area using a chartered plane paid for by the conference. Also, he was given a downtown SF apartment that was paid for by the Pac-12 and often sat empty. It infuriated mid-level staffers who were living two and three to an apartment to get by in San Francisco. This may not be unusual for a media company, but it’s not “good hygiene” when your media company is struggling.

• The Pac-12 got three teams into the men’s NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. Washington, Oregon and Arizona State made it. None are better than a No. 9 seed. Last year, the conference’s three tournament teams went 0-3. This year? You tell me.

• The Pac-12 has been shut out of the College Football Playoff in back-to-back years and has been left out of the playoff in three of the five years its existed.

• A astute reader pointed out that there were only 10 Power Five Conference universities that didn’t qualify for a college football bowl game and also failed to make the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Five of them (USC, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona, Colorado) hail from the Pac-12.

• The Pac-12 painted an encouraging portrait at that Saturday news conference. It’s their platform. I don’t blame them for trying to spin things happy. We’d all probably do the same. But I’m just not convinced the Pac-12 has the kind of leadership out front necessary to pull out of this death spiral. I think the presidents are hoping this will all blow over if they can just get a nationally successful on-field story in football next season.

I don’t see an obvious one coming, do you?