REPORT: Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff to visit SMU
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We could soon get big news on Pac-12 expansion. For anyone who felt that the Pac-12 would not make any moves and would essentially revert to being the Pac-10 once again, it seems that scenario will not unfold.
Would the Pac-12 add just one school, San Diego State, and sit at 11 schools? That probably won’t happen, either.
What about Gonzaga coming to the conference to join San Diego State? That probably isn’t happening.
The fresh news in the conference comes from reporting that Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff will pay a visit to Southern Methodist University. The topic: joining the Pac-12.
Whether this visit is an exploratory conversation or a genuine negotiation is unclear, but that distinction might not matter too much at this point. If the Pac-12 is interested, it’s hard to imagine SMU not wanting to make the jump from a Group of Five conference, the AAC, to a Power Five league. The real question was whether the Pac-12 wanted SMU.
This development would seem to indicate it does:
Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff visiting SMU Wednesday, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. San Diego State & SMU are top Pac-12 expansion candidates. Pac-12 needs more members & more inventory for new media rights deal, which is expected to rely heavily on digital streaming services
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 8, 2023
The longstanding drama over the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations — and whether the conference can arrive at a dollar figure comparable to what the Big 12 delivered — is unavoidably connected to the teams the conference will bring to the table.
The Pac-12’s recent overpayment scandal connected to Comcast could be holding up media rights negotiations. That said, it only makes sense for the Pac-12 to secure arrangements from new schools before then going to the table with Amazon, or Apple, or other partners. How much value will San Diego State and SMU bring to the table?
We might soon find out.
