Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott has received criticism from fans and media for leading efforts to make his conference more of an international brand, venturing into China with sporting events, rather than concentrate on matters at home including the DirecTV debacle.
The reported $726,000 spent on the conference’s Asia/Pacific Rim initiatives last year should have been dispersed to the institutions, cynics say. Why is time and money being spent on games in China instead of Scott concentrating on coming to terms with DirecTV to make games available to more fans in the region?
What most of the critics don’t understand is the venture into China is that Scott is only a player in the process. A majority of the league’s presidents and chancellors – the very people who run these institutions and think of academics over athletics – are behind the bold attempt into making the Pac-12 synonymous with the Pacific Rim.
This is also nothing new. The New York Times ran an article almost five years ago with the headline: “This time, Pac-12 expansion could be another country.” The article written at the outset of this unprecedented effort by the conference into becoming an international brand indicates presidents such as ASU’s Michael Crow and USC’s Max Nikias and others generated the idea.
The article cites league athletic directors supporting the effort. It was also written that Nike president Phil Knight, a significant Oregon donor, has strong business ties in that country.
This was not a brazen individual attempt by Scott to make the Pac-12 more visible in Asia.
Scott is the most polarized Power 5 commissioner because of the standstill with DirecTV (preventing millions of fans from watching events on the Pac-12 Networks) and the controversial late starting times for football and men’s basketball games because of TV contracts with ESPN and Fox Sports.
He further alienated himself from fans, administrators and coaches – namely UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero and football coach Jim Mora – for calling out Guerrero publicly for making a mistake when he voted against satellite camps in a vote by conference officials.
Scott has a long-standing dislike from Arizona fans after he fined basketball coach Sean Miller $25,000 for his tirade in regards to a technical foul called against him in a loss to UCLA in the 2013 Pac-12 tournament, the event in which deposed head of officials Ed Rush reportedly set a bounty on Miller for refs to give him a technical or eject him from the game. When Arizona won the 2015 Pac-12 tournament title in Las Vegas, Arizona fans loudly booed Scott when he was introduced before presenting Miller the trophy.
Scott was hired by league presidents in 2010 because of his business acumen demonstrated as the chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association, not because of his popularity. Under Scott, the WTA reportedly had a 500 percent increase in sponsorship revenue, a 250 percent increase in overall revenues, a 40 percent increase in prize money and $710 million in new stadium investments. He helped the tour land the largest sponsorship deal in the history of women’s sports with Sony Ericsson at $88 million over six years.
The truth of the matter is all conference officials nationwide are observing with great interest Scott’s branding efforts in Asia. They are taking a wait-and-see approach whereas Scott is active following a meeting with league presidents in 2011 in which “the light went off” when he heard of the wide international scope of the universities.
Instead of ridicule, Scott should be credited for spearheading something new and enterprising in an attempt to broaden the conference’s educational scope and visibility with prospective international business partners.
San Jose Mercury reporter Jon Wilner explains in a recent interview with Scott the branding efforts of Scott and the Pac-12 in Asia: “Seems to me that Asia is some of everything … some (presidential) desire for full tuition students … some desire to brand-build and develop business/research partners … some desire to expose student-athletes to different cultures. Whether you agree with the Asia push or not, the reality is the majority of presidents and chancellors are wholly on board.”
With this effort unfolding five years after initial discussions shows the league presidents are determined to make the Asia initiative work. They are behind Scott scheduling sporting events there and having two full-time employees devoted to the league’s mission in that area.
Fans have a legitimate gripe about the Pac-12 and DirecTV not resolving their differences. But that issue should not be clouded with the conference’s effort in China. It’s comparing apples and oranges. A Power 5 conference commissioner should be expected to place attention on a myriad of objectives.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby proudly announced two years ago new branding initiatives with his conference that included a new logo, “One True Champion” microsite, and enhanced digital and social media platforms. That effort hardly got a whisper nationally because of most of the attention of the conference is placed on league expansion and a football title game.
Scott and the Pac-12 have gained more notoriety and are more progressive than others with their efforts in Asia with the potential to be trendsetters for other conferences, all in the name of branding, increasing revenue and improving educational opportunities. That’s what universities should be all about.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.