George Kliavkoff blasts UCLA, USC for decision to leave Pac-12, join Big Ten

The news that UCLA and USC were leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten rocked the foundation of college football, and caught Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff by complete surprise. In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Kliavkoff sounded off about the abrupt move and why he believes it’s a poor decision in the long run.

“It’s clear that UCLA and USC made a decision for short-term financial gain at the expense of their student-athletes,” Kliavkoff told The Athletic on Friday. “It’s 100 percent clear to me. It’s really unfortunate, and I think they are already regretting it, given the pushback that they’ve gotten from almost every corner of their communities. I think they will regret it more as time goes on.”

The two Los Angeles-based universities aren’t the only teams reshaping the college athletics landscape. Texas and Oklahoma did the same exact thing last season, announcing their intentions to join the SEC in 2025. Cincinnati, Houston and UCF are set to join the Big-12 as well, and more moves like these are inevitable across the board.

The news was broken to the Pac-12 Commissioner that the two programs would be leaving the conference while he was taking his first vacation since taking the job in May of 2021. He was driving in Montana on his way to Idaho when deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich sent Kliavkoff multiple messages that the blockbuster move would be happening.

“The surprising part, to me, is the Pac-12 has a mission that is related to the health and well-being of its student-athletes, and this is a decision that, in my opinion, goes directly against the health and well-being of student-athletes. That’s the surprise for me.”

That mission is to make sure that the Pac-12 continues to be a stable conference that will still be considered one of the Power Five conferences in the country. With rumors swirling of potential mid-major programs and even some Big-12 universities potentially interesting in joining the conference, Kliavkoff shut down those rumors. Instead, he assured that the Pac-12 hasn’t made a decision regarding expansion at this time.

“I’ve been trying to focus on stuff that moves the conference forward, and I’ve been trying to spend as little time as possible responding to the fake news and nonsense that has come out of other conferences in an effort to destabilize us,” Kliavkoff said.