Don’t fire WSU president for Pac-12 debacle | Op-Ed | CPT PPP Coverage

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The tenor of Tanner Lemke’s My Take essay in the Aug. 12 Opinion page accurately captures the feelings of many Washington State University fans about the implosion of the Pac-12 — anger, bewilderment, frustration, concern, remorse and profound sadness.

And he is right to note this is the culmination of false steps by the conference spanning decades.

He is wrong, however, to pin this on WSU President Kirk Schulz and call for his removal because to build his case, Lemke relies on four fallacies:

Fallacy 1: Schulz enabled Larry Scott to ruin the Pac-12. Through my involvement with WSU, I have discussed the conference with Schulz many times and he understood the issues former Pac-12 Commissioner Scott created. When Schulz came to WSU, Scott had powerful allies from certain long-tenured presidents. When those presidents retired or moved, the power shifted to Schulz and University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce. This ultimately led to Scott resigning. To assert Schulz stood by and did nothing is erroneous.

Fallacy 2: Because Schulz led the search to hire George Kliavkoff, Schulz is to blame for everything that has happened. Schulz led the search to identify three finalists, but the selection of Kliavkoff was made by the entire group. Kliavkoff was an unconventional choice and he lost 25% of the conference (USC, UCLA, Colorado) before the media deal was presented, hardly making him Commissioner of the Year. Even Schulz has acknowledged Kliavkoff’s missteps.

But Kliavkoff was not a total whiff. He stepped in and quickly improved conference finances. He created stronger ties with the athletic directors. Rather than visiting two schools, he traveled to each campus, and not in a private jet.

Even the Apple media deal isn’t as horrible as some portray. It starts at $25 million per school, but it’s not a stretch to think subscriptions would have taken that number significantly higher. Apple had committed to a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign to promote the conference and planned to feature the Pac-12 on all its platforms. Theoretically, the Pac-12 could have been the best-known conference in the world with global subscriptions. Streaming is not difficult. I’m 70 years old and I can navigate between apps on my Apple TV (it’s not as fast as hitting the back button on your cable remote, but it doesn’t require a Ph.D., either) and I was excited about watching the Cougs anywhere in the world at any time. Plus, no longer would a Pac-12 game be relegated to an obscure channel while we waited for a lopsided SEC game or NASCAR truck race to end.

Fallacy 3: Schulz headed the executive committee while the conference worked through a media rights deal with little sense of urgency. Wrong. Schulz became head of the Pac-12 executive committee five weeks ago. The things Lemke laments occurred under the leadership of a president whose school is no longer associated with the Pac-12.

Fallacy 4: Schulz fails to grasp the transformation of college spots. This is laughable. Schulz played a — if not the — critical role in expanding the college football playoffs. A key component was convincing the Rose Bowl to abandon ownership of the 2 p.m. Jan. 1 time slot. In the face of expanded playoffs, the Rose Bowl risked becoming totally irrelevant if it didn’t host one of those games. Getting the Granddaddy of Them All to swallow its pride and join the party is the action of someone who not only understands the transformation of college sports, he’s helping lead it.

Everyone is entitled to their perception of Schulz and what caused the demise of the Pac-12. But we need to make that decision based on facts rather than cobbling together some misinformed tweets to build one’s case.