The Pac-12 completed its two-step leadership change Monday morning, promoting deputy Teresa Gould to the role of commissioner.
The move comes three days after the announced dismissal of George Kliavkoff — officially, the conference called the decision a “mutual” parting of the ways — and was fully expected across the conference and college sports.
Gould assumes office on March 1, one day after Kliavkoff departs. The terms of her agreement were not disclosed.
Gould’s compensation is not listed on the most recent Pac-12 financial reports (for the 2022 fiscal year), meaning she was not one of the conference’s top-paid employees in her role as deputy commissioner. Kliavkoff’s annual salary was believed to be approximately $3.5 million.
“Teresa’s deep knowledge of collegiate athletics and unwavering commitment to student-athletes makes her uniquely qualified to help guide the Pac-12 Conference during this period of unprecedented change in college sports,” Washington State president Kirk Schulz, chair of the Pac-12 board, said in announcing the move.
Gould has served as a top executive for five-and-a-half years, overseeing a bevy of sports and internal operations. She has significant on-campus experience, as well, having been an interim athletic director at UC Davis and a longtime lieutenant at Cal.
She will become the first female commissioner of a Power Five conference. (In NCAA parlance, the applicable term is ‘Autonomy Five’ conference.) However, it’s a dramatically scaled-down version of the entity that has existed for the past 109 years.
Schulz and Oregon State’s Jayathi Murthy constitute the entirety of the Pac-12’s governing board as 10 schools plan to depart this summer for other leagues.
Schulz and Murthy made the decision to part ways with Kliavkoff, although they were required by a court order to notify the 10 outbound presidents in advance.
The same process applied to Gould’s appointment.
She will work closely with the Cougars and Beavers in the new era. They will compete as a two-team conference in football for the 2024 and 2025 seasons (through a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West) and will house many Olympic sports in the West Coast Conference.
Based on NCAA rules, WSU and OSU have a two-year grace period. Once the summer of 2026 arrives, the Pac-12 must have at least eight members or lose recognition as an official conference.
“I look forward to partnering with Oregon State and Washington State to secure a bright future for their student-athletes that allows them to compete at the highest level of college athletics, while enjoying the benefits of a quality campus experience,” Gould said in the Pac-12’s news release.
With the scheduling agreements in place, WSU and OSU are working to secure media rights agreements for their home football games.
They also must determine, with Gould, the scope of conference operations starting this summer. The decision hinges, in part, on whether WSU and OSU shutter the Pac-12 Networks’ production studio in San Ramon, California.
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The networks will cease to exist as a media company this summer when its distribution agreements expire. But the infrastructure could have value to a media company looking to outsource production or to the outgoing Pac-12 schools, which must produce on-campus events for their new conferences’ media partners.
Additionally, WSU and OSU are carefully monitoring the landscape as the NCAA faces numerous legal challenges to its economic model, the ACC combats an existential crisis (via Florida State’s lawsuit), the College Football Playoff prepares to expand and the SEC and Big Ten join forces to chart a path forward.
“We find ourselves navigating an extraordinarily complex time in our industry,” Gould added in her statement.
“The challenges we face must be met head-on, with a reinvigorated energy to transform and forge ahead. I look forward to working with both campus and national leaders to find solutions that will preserve opportunities for student-athletes and set us up for long-term viability and success.”
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