LAS VEGAS -- Had Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott decided to abandon his courtside seats during the conference basketball tournament this week and retire to his MGM Grand Hotel suite to watch, he'd have made a troubling realization.

Hotel guests couldn't watch most of them.

They could watch games from 10 other men's basketball conference tournaments this week, but couldn't see most of his own conference without walking to the casino floor or MGM sports book where a premium version of the Pac-12 Networks national feed was available.

Don't know where this leaves your household, but the Pac-12 television deal feels more "Conference of Chumps" than "Conference of Champions."

Flagged down a Pac-12 spokesperson on press row Thursday and asked how bad his migraine was from answering questions about the issue. He grinned and referred me to a spokesperson from the Pac-12 Networks.

"It's been busy," Kirk Reynolds said, "but not unexpected. We have been talking to the providers for the last six months, warning them that this was coming and urging them to add Pac-12 Network in HD to the basic package."

Let's back up.

Because the Pac-12 Networks moved in November to regional-themed programming that includes six regional feeds and one national feed. The result has been maddening for a large segment of conference basketball fans who learned this week what the conference has known and dreaded -- viewers who didn't have access to the national feed on their satellite or cable subscriber tier are only able to watch their regional games. Also, those games may not be in HD.

For example, today's much-anticipated semifinal between Oregon and Arizona is scheduled to be shown on Pac-12 Oregon, Pac-12 Arizona and the national feed. If you live in Portland or Tucson and would like to see the other semifinal -- Cal vs. Utah -- unless you're on the premium national channel or have the FS1 feed on your tier, you can't.

The Pac-12 athletic directors are meeting again on Saturday to discuss a line of important issues facing the conference. Among them, an important discussion on a potential policy that would prohibit students with conduct issues from transferring to a Pac-12 school to play sports. But the hope here is that at some point of the day, someone in the room will speak for fans, pound a fist on a table top, and ask commissioner Scott why the Pac-12 Network is such a blasted embarrassment and headache.

It's bad for marketing. The network's strategy has been lousy for exposure. Other major conference teams are often available to be seen in 5x the households of the Pac-12 games. Late kickoffs in football season are cumbersome. When you factor in the disappointment the Pac-12 Networks have been in revenue generated for the members and the distribution shortcomings that include a headlock with DirecTV, the wonder is why the conference doesn't regroup and just start over.

Instead, it wants you to solve the issue.

The Pac-12 created an automated webpage that allows frustrated viewers to contact their provider directly, "in less than 40 seconds," per the spokesperson. He gave me the link. I've provided it here. But for me, it falls woefully short because it puts the consumer, and not the conference, in the position of responsibility. It wants you and your neighbors to lobby for the network. In that, the conference has passed the buck to the consumer, and made this exclusively your problem.

The conference needs to fix this. It needs to stop trying to splinter the conference away from the network it created. And it needs to start answering questions. Why should consumers have to send an email? Why wasn't this carriage issue negotiated in the original deals with providers? Players, coaches and administrators come and go. Fans are stakeholders, in it for life, so why weren't the stakeholders of the Pac-12 protected by the conference? And why doesn't the network have an over-the-top distribution agreement?

(I've asked commissioner Scott for a comment. If he provides a meaningful one, I'll update with it here. One better, if he fixes the issue and shows some strong leadership, I'll write a series of glowing columns on how brilliant he is and how wrong I was to question his leadership. But like a lot of you, I'm tired of the non-action.

The initial response from the Pac-12 Conference was an offer to connect me with Lydia Murphy-Stephans, who runs the network. I told them I'd like Scott to speak on it. After all, the conference created the network.)

In Portland today on television, you can watch Western Kentucky-Old Dominion if you'd like. You can see Marshall play Middle Tennessee State or take in two semifinal women's games from Conference USA. The SEC Network has four games televised in Portland. The Big Ten has two quarterfinal games on its network, and two more on ESPN. If you want to see basketball in 10 other conferences, you can watch it. You're in charge of the remote control.

The Pac-12 is not in charge of its own product.

That's the news today.

-- @JohnCanzanoBFT