With high stakes and a low margin for error, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould decided she needed face time. Not the app version. The original version: face-to – face time.
So she boarded a flight to Spokane. It was Saturday afternoon, and expansion plans had stalled. After initial success with four schools from the Mountain West, the Pac-12 had been rejected, in public fashion, by Memphis, South Florida, Tulane and UNLV.
Although the conference’s underlying strategy remained sound, the optics generated by a series of rejections were poor. The next move was pivotal, and the conference turned its focus to the top available prize in the realignment game . Another whiff was untenable.
Gould flew to Spokane (without her consultants) to meet with Gonzaga president Thayne McCulloh and athletic director Chris Standiford and convince them to leave the West Coast Conference in a move that would reshape college sports on the West Coast. Her decision stood in stark contrast to the approach taken by her predecessor, George Kliavkoff when the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations were on the brink of collapse in early August of 2023. Instead of flying to Eugene and Seattle to personally appeal to the schools that would determine the Pac-12’s future, Kliavkoff stayed home and attempted to work things out remotely.
He failed to grasp what Gould understood instinctively: College sports is all about relationships, especially in the most pressurized moments. After landing in Spokane on Sat.