Pac-12 hires MGM Resorts executive George Kliavkoff as commissioner to replace Larry Scott
Kliavkoff comes to the Pac-12 from a role leading sports and entertainment for MGM Resorts International
www.cbssports.com
The last PAC 12 commissioner was Larry Scott. He was hired from the world of tennis with zero experience in collegiate sports administration. He was an acknowledged disaster. As a result, all most all of the coaches and athletic directors were hoping that the next commissioner would be a person with experience in the world of college sports administration.
Instead they hired MGM Resorts executive George Kliavkoff, another person with zero experience in collegiate sports administration.
But in an interview with The Athletic, he did say what I think PAC 12 fans wanted to hear - “I want to be clear,” he said. “We know where the bread is buttered. We’re focused on revenue sports and winning in men’s basketball and football.”......“The (Pac-12’s) greatest weakness, if we’re being honest with ourselves, is the number of years it’s been since we won a football (2004) or men’s basketball (1997) national championship,” said Kliavkoff. “We’re going to do everything we can at the conference level to fix that.”
The linked CBS article made an interesting observation concerning Kliavkoff's long association with gambling resorts: This is an interesting hire for the Pac-12. The popularity in sports gambling as increased over the last five years as several states have begun to allow sports betting. Kliavkoff's ties to the industry certainly indicated that the conference could be taking a more proactive approach to its popularity. Coupled with his experience in the world of streaming and entertainment, that indicates the conference had a forward-thinking approach to this decision.
It will be interesting to see how this hire works out. But I think that there is a reasonable chance that 'history will repeat itself'.
