George Kliavkoff says Big 12 poaching Pac-12 schools is 'not a concern'

When the Pac-12 lost both USC and UCLA for the future last summer, the first question on the minds of many college sports fans was… who will replace them? Surely the conference isn’t going to stand and allow two of its flagship programs to be swiped away without properly trying to make up for their loss? Well, so far, that’s been the case as the Pac-12 has failed to make any progress on potential expansion partners.

Meanwhile, there’s also some concern that the Pac-12 could begin to lose even more teams to fellow power conferences, including to the Big 12, who was very aggressive on the expansion front once two of their top schools also agreed to move to another conference. They already added four new teams for this year and could look to further expand once Texas and Oklahoma officially leave.

During his opening remarks at Pac-12 Media Days, conference commissioner George Kliavkoff dispelled any and all current realignment rumors. It’s a lockdown out west right now, with nobody getting in or out of the Pac-12 in the immediate future.

“It’s not a concern. Our schools are committed to each other and to the Pac-12,” Kliavkoff said of realignment. “We’ll get our media rights deal done, we’ll announce the deal. I think the realignment that’s going on in college athletics will come to an end for this cycle.”

He seems pretty definitive here that the Pac-12 is done adding or losing teams for this “cycle” of conference realignment.

“The truth is we have bigger fish to fry,” Kliavkoff continued. “There are incredible opportunities and also challenges in front of college athletics. I need to be able to work with all of my colleagues in Division I and particularly in the A-5. We’ll do that and move past kind of all the bitter squabbling of the last year and work together to make college athletics better.”

Those hoping for an update on the Pac-12 conference realignment situation are not getting that here. Instead, Kliavkoff doused water on the idea that the conference has held any expansion talks with other programs. One reporter even mentioned San Diego State specifically and noted that there’s rumors the Aztecs had an invite to the Pac-12 at one point, but Kliavkoff rejected that notion and again noted he wasn’t planning on expanding at the moment.

Things can always change, but for now, George Kliavkoff seems content to keep the current Pac-12 roster just how it is.