Canzano: View from Las Vegas has changed for Pac-12

Nightly room rate: $7,500.

This was 2019 and Scott’s cash-strapped conference was slogging through a four-day men’s basketball tournament, trying to crown a champion. The suite was a “comp,” Scott soon claimed, pointing out that it came as part of the conference’s sponsorship package with MGM Resorts to hold the tournament in Las Vegas.

“That didn’t really matter,” said one current Pac-12 AD. “The optics were beyond bad.”

That lavish hotel suite ends up as part of the final narrative for the outgoing commissioner. There were high hopes but the most memorable parts of Scott’s tenure hit some of the wrong themes. Other major conferences were talking about NCAA Tournament shares, College Football Playoff payouts and media-rights mega-deals. But the so-called “Conference of Champions” was stuck on chartered flights, Scott’s $5 million-a year salary, a lavish downtown-San Francisco palace, shaky officiating and a Pac-12 Network that mostly frustrated fans while it bled cash.

Scott is out officially in June. His contract was not renewed. Scott received a $1.9 million interest-free loan from the conference when he was hired more than a decade ago. The loan will be paid back in full as part of Scott’s separation agreement, Andrew Walker, a conference spokesperson said.

The search firm hired by the Pac-12 hasn’t yet begun to make contact with candidates. As of last week it was still in the “listening” phase, consulting with the 12 university presidents to determine what qualities they’d like to see in the next commissioner.

I’m good with the Pac-12 taking some time and getting this hire right.

How about someone who would be willing to take a commercial flight? Or pass on the “Sky Villa” because he or she understood it was a bad look? Or maybe just someone who will spend some time on Pac-12 campuses, grasping the challenges of daily university life?

What’s lacked most in the last decade is a connection between the campuses and the conference headquarters. It’s why I’ll be curious to see if Scott’s replacement is a former sitting athletic director or maybe just someone who takes the job and announces that the first order of business is to spend a week on each of the campuses, listening.

Washington State president Kirk Schulz, told me, “You’ve got 12 schools, they’re like 12 children. You have to love ‘em all different. I want the commissioner to show up at Pullman (and other schools) and say, ‘What can I do to help you succeed?’”

Scott is on his final big trip on the company dime this week in Las Vegas. A conference source said that this year Scott stayed at Park MGM hotel like everyone else. So maybe “Champagne Larry” has learned something. Or maybe his hotel choice was rooted in necessary COVID-19 “bubble” protocols, as all 11 teams that participated in the men’s basketball tournament stayed at the same hotel this year.

In prior years the teams have been scattered along The Strip. With a pandemic going on, and swaths of Las Vegas still shut down, the decision was made to keep the members together. The optics of that — a conference finally united — look far better.

I’ve talked to a handful of the conference’s presidents and chancellors in the last few months. They’re engaged and interested in rectifying and rebuilding the brand of the Pac-12. One president told me that there’s renewed hope and enthusiasm. Another suggested the conference’s CEO Group was blown away by what the search firm shared with them. Another said it will just be nice to stop talking about Larry Scott and start talking about what the Pac-12 can become with new leadership.

This is a conference that has so many good stories to tell. Oregon State, for example, was picked by some to finish dead last in men’s basketball this season. Wayne Tinkle’s Beavers are now headed to the tournament as a No. 12 seed after defeating Colorado Saturday night in the Pac-12 tournament championship game.

The Pac-12 has great coaches, wonderful facilities, dedicated athletes and good geography. Its got some of the best stadium-backdrop landscape in America. Also, this conference has droves of alumni who are eager to see the Pac-12 succeed.

The point here isn’t to beat up on Scott and turn him into a victim. Truth is, I think Scott meant well. His hire was a correction from the folksy act of his predecessor, Tom Hansen. Scott wasn’t warm and engaging. He could be awkward in public appearances and struggled to connect with his staff. He acted suspiciously like one of those Fortune 500 CEOs, busy managing up to the board members, not down to his staff. It drove the athletic directors in the conference nuts because, in the end, they felt dismissed and ignored.

Never more so than this same week in 2014 when Scott met in Las Vegas with the conference athletic directors. It’s an annual Saturday-morning meeting. But seven years ago a particularly frustrated room was engaged in a terse standoff with the conference commissioner.

Then-Utah AD Chris Hill was pressing Scott on budget issues and poor revenue distribution. Hill had the respect and support of the room. He was a senior member and well regarded by his peers. Hill pushed the commissioner for answers, asked some hard questions, and soon got cut off.

Scott sniped at Hill: “You’re lucky for what you get.”

The ADs didn’t feel so lucky.

The Pac-12 has a lot of work to do. It won’t be easy to stay competitive with the Big Ten and SEC. They’ve got superior media-rights deals, larger stadiums and rabid fan bases. There’s also the matter of what to do when the 11-year, $92 million lease on the Pac-12 headquarters expires in late 2022. Maybe the offices will be moved right here to Las Vegas. Also, there’s a network to save. But the right hire is out there, somewhere.

Probably someone who would never have stayed in that villa in the sky.