SAN FRANCISCO -- It was 10 minutes into his speech to the gathered media before Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott addressed the FBI investigation into college basketball, one that resulted in the arrests of two conference coaches.

Scott brought it up, announced a task force and then took three questions on the matter from seated reporters before exiting out a side door.

Next up was USC coach Andy Enfield, and he was inundated.

At the 2017 Pac-12 media days, the format changed. Instead of coaches taking questions in a traditional press conference, reporters were encouraged to come up to the seated coach as players answered questions in the back of the room.

Enfield was the first coach up. Last month, one of his assistant coaches was arrested. Enfield was promptly surrounded and peppered for 20 minutes.

When did you know?

How could you not know?

Is this embarrassing?

Enfield tried to pivot. Today was about his players, he said. But it wasn't. No matter how much Enfield, or the rest of the Pac-12 coaches tried to emphasize that the Pac-12 media day was meant to talk about basketball, no one could escape the hanging cloud of the FBI investigation that has already led to the arrests of USC assistant Tony Bland, Arizona assistant Emanuel Richardson and several others around the country.

In its simplest terms, the FBI is investigating the sport for illegal exchanges of money: from coaches receiving payments to influence athletes toward different agencies to athletes receiving bribes to commit to different schools. The arrests shocked the college basketball world when they happened late in September and have since hung over the sport. Scott had initially released a statement regarding the investigations then, but Thursday was his first time addressing the issue in public.

He announced the formation of a Pac-12 task force that he said will propose reforms to protect student-athletes and address certain systemic issues threatening college athletics.

Scott announced that current athletic directors Dan Guerrero (UCLA) and Chris Hill (Utah) will be a part of the 10- to 12-member task force, which will also include Charles Davis, Mike Montgomery and Oregon native Tom Jernstedt. The rest will be named later.

"I think you'll see from the other folks that get appointed, it will be a combination of insiders and people that come with a fresh, outside perspective and have a unique and very relevant vantage point," Scott said.

The task force will report its findings to the conference and the NCAA by the end of the first quarter of 2018, Scott said.

Scott would later say he was shocked by the arrests and the investigation. But talking to coaches around the conference on Thursday offered a bit of a different picture. The fact that things like this were going on in college basketball wasn't a surprise, Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said.

"To be honest, it's like a lot of people say, and you kind of knew things were taking place," Krystkowiak said. "Whether or not it ever came to light in my lifetime, I wasn't sure it was going to.

"We didn't lose any sleep. I think everybody makes a decision across the country on how you're going to go about your business and we felt very secure that we weren't going to be involved in it."

Arizona coach Sean Miller and Enfield drew the most attention and fire from the gathered media. The two coach the two schools ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the preseason Pac-12 media poll released on Thursday, and Arizona has generated a lot of preseason national title buzz. In past years, Miller has often been the center of these media days, mainly for the success of his program. He's a three-time Pac-12 coach of the year and the Wildcats have reached the NCAA Tournament in six of his eight years in Tucson.

A year ago, however, controversy surrounded the Wildcats as Allonzo Trier was a last-minute scrub following his suspension for PED use. Trier was here this year, but Miller drew everyone's attention.

He began with a statement, saying that he had already released a statement and that he planned on sticking by said statement.

In that Oct. 3 statement, Miller said: "I was devastated to learn last week of the allegations made against Emanuel Richardson. I have expressed to both Dr. Robbins and our Athletic Director Dave Heeke that I fully support the University's efforts to fully investigate these allegations. As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance. To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past 8 years and will continue to do so as we move forward."

When Thursday's session opened up for questions, reporters circled around Miller.

Did you know your coach was taking bribes?

Have you been contacted by the FBI?

What responsibility does a head coach have of knowing what's going on?

"I'm going to stand by the statement I had given," Miller responded to each question.

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger