Add Cal chancellor Carol Christ to the small but growing list of campus leaders to publicly voice concern about the state of the Pac-12.
In a wide-ranging interview, Christ singled out the conference’s revenue model, scheduling issues (not only for football but all events on the Pac-12 Networks) and, perhaps most pointedly, the priorities of the conference office itself.
Recall that in October, Washington State’s Kirk Schulz became the first president/chancellor to present a less-than-rosy view, noting the Pac-12 Networks’ modest revenue was “a concern of the presidents and … a large discussion point with meetings with the commissioner.’’
Christ took her comments in a different direction — in three directions, in fact — during an hour-long discussion focused primarily on the state of Cal athletics.
Worth noting for context:
1) Schulz and Christ are recent additions to the conference power structure and were not part of the group that hired commissioner Larry Scott in 2009.
2) Two of the three presidents on the hiring team, Arizona State’s Michael Crow and Oregon State’s Ed Ray, have been complimentary of Scott.
3) Scott received a contract extension in the spring that runs through 2022.
Here’s Christ …
*** On the finances.
“Their revenue model is based on two things: cable TV and football,” Christ said.
“If I was looking just a decade in the future, the landscape will be very different in relation to both of those.”
*** On the schedules.
With a hint of exasperation, Christ noted, “We didn’t know when the Big Game was going to be played until six days before.”
She then expressed dismay over the extent to which control of sporting life on the campuses has been handed over to the conference’s television partners.
“I know that sounds trivial,’’ she said, “but part of the value of football to the institution is community building, and it makes it very hard to realize that value with the constant jerking around of game times.”
It was suggested to Christ that the conference had traded control of the schedule — the flexibility to set kickoff times at late dates — for a more lucrative contract with ESPN and Fox.
“I know it’s impossible to turn the clock back … to a simpler time in athletics when football games were always at 1 p.m. and they were big occasions in the campus’ community life, and all the games were on the weekends, and the athletes were less challenged by being students and athletes, too.
“It’s not that the Pac-12 is the sole actor in all that, but it’s the way in which we entered this world of cable TV-dominated sports scheduling, with all its negative aspects.”
Christ went on to note the demands placed on athletes by the Pac-12 Networks, which broadcast hundreds of Olympic sports events.
In addition to football, she said, there are “distortions in other schedules, where athletes are traveling in the middle of the week and it’s compromising their attendance in classes because of the Pac-12 Network, in which they’re broadcasting all these games to, I think, very small TV audiences.
“Fundamentally, this has to be about the student experience.’’
(More here on those small audiences.)
*** “Elaborating your own organization”
Perhaps Christ’s most pointed critique, however, was aimed at the conference office itself.
“I’m fairly critical of the Pac-12 organization,’’ she said.
“Like many central organizations — you could think about the office of the president here as an analogy, and it’s just human nature — you tend to elaborate your own organization rather than understanding that it should be as small and efficient as possible for the benefit of the members.”
Campus officials have privately expressed frustration over the years with spending at the conference level — everything from staff salaries to the rent in downtown San Francisco to the production costs associated with the Pac-12 Networks.
But until now, the criticism had never come from the highest levels of power — from one of the chancellors or presidents.
“It’s really three sets of concerns,’’ Christ said in closing.
“Is this revenue model sustainable; the domination of cable TV, particularly the model in the Pac-12 in which having its own network has created even more distortion in student schedules; and then elaborating your own organization rather than seeing yourself as basically a service to the members.”
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