Report: Pac-12 CEO Group calls meeting, athletic directors to join call

Wednesday’s news that Colorado is eyeing an exit from the Pac-12 conference to return to the Big 12 has sent the Pac-12 seemingly into crisis mode. The conference CEO group and athletic directors are slated to meet on Thursday evening to respond to the apparent move from Colorado, according to John Canzano.

On Wednesday, Big 12 chancellors and presidents voted to accept Colorado into the league, should they chose to leave the Pac-12. The Colorado board is meeting on Thursday after already meeting on Wednesday, seemingly with the purpose of finishing a jump to a new conference.

According to Canzano, the Pac-12 leaders will be discussing the state of the media deal — yet to be announced — amid this new development. They will also discuss the possibility of using this moment to “trade up” with Colorado bailing.

The group will “discuss the opportunity to ‘trade up’ through expansion given Colorado’s decision,” one member said to Canzano.

Colorado had been in the Big 12 since its inception until leaving for the Pac-12 in 2011.

Less than a week ago, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said waiting might net a better media rights deal

While giving his opening remarks and answering questions from the media at Pac-12 Media Day on Friday, Kliavkoff did his best to address questions about this deal and the process around it.

“Getting the right deal has always been important, more important to our board and the conference than getting the expeditious,” Kliavkoff said.

When USC and UCLA announced they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, the conference began looking for a new media deal to create some stability for the remaining members. However, since then, no deal has been announced despite consistent rumors about that deal.

“The longer we wait for the media deal, the better our options get,” Kliavkoff said. He also pointed out that the conference is on track to ink a new deal at about the time the conference was initially supposed to do, had the Pac-12 not begun seeking a new media deal early. He said, “In the end, we are on track to announce our deals at about the same time everyone would have predicted before conference realignment. … [the Pac-12] will be rewarded in the near future.”

As questions began, Kliavkoff emphasized that he wants the focus to be on football right now, not the media deal

“We are not announcing our media deal today on purpose because we want the focus to be on football,” George Kliavkoff said. The implication is that the Pac-12 does have a media deal in place, but it wouldn’t be announced. When asked about that, Kliavkoff denied that implication.

“I think you’re reading too much into that… We want to have the focus on football today. We have an incredibly good football story to tell and we want that to be the focus today.”