How the Pac-12 landed Gonzaga and ‘changed the chessboard’ for conference’s next move

With high stakes and a low margin for error, Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould decided she needed face time. Not the app version. The original version: face-to-face time.

So she boarded a flight to Spokane.

It was Saturday afternoon, and expansion plans had stalled. After initial success with four schools from the Mountain West, the Pac-12 had been rejected, in public fashion, by Memphis, South Florida, Tulane and UNLV. Although the conference’s underlying strategy remained sound, the optics generated by a series of rejections were poor.

The next move was pivotal, and the conference turned its focus to the top available prize in the realignment game. Another whiff was untenable.

Gould flew to Spokane (without her consultants) to meet with Gonzaga President Thayne McCulloh and athletic director Chris Standiford and convince them to leave the West Coast Conference in a move that would reshape college sports on the West Coast.

Her decision stood in stark contrast to the approach taken by her predecessor, George Kliavkoff when the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations were on the brink of collapse in early August 2023.

Instead of flying to Eugene and Seattle to personally appeal to the schools that would determine the Pac-12’s future, Kliavkoff stayed home and attempted to work things out remotely. He failed to grasp what Gould understood instinctively: College sports is all about relationships, especially in the most pressurized moments.

After landing in Spokane on Saturday night, Gould spent Sunday with McCulloh and Standiford, a longtime friend, plus the general counsels from the school and the conference. (Standiford and Gould are so close that during the news conference Tuesday afternoon, he referred to Gould by her maiden name, Kuehn, before catching himself.)

They walked through campus and negotiated around a table. Gould also met individually with Gonzaga’s basketball coaches, Mark Few (men) and Lisa Fortier (women). And over the course of 10 hours, she hammered out a deal.

They dined together Sunday night.

Gould, who prefers the shadows to the spotlight, was not available to comment, and the details of her discussions with Gonzaga’s leadership could remain private forever. A source familiar with the situation said only: “There was no pretense other than to ensure fairness and a commitment to student-athletes.”

Gould broke the momentous news to the presidents and athletic directors of the new Pac-12 on Monday afternoon, then asked for secrecy – for a night with no leaks to the media until the deal was sealed.

On Tuesday morning, the news became official, super-charging the Pac-12’s rebuild.

Gonzaga doesn’t count as a full-time member under NCAA rules, leaving the conference one school short of meeting the NCAA requirement. But the Zags’ presence transforms the reality and perception of a process that began three weeks ago with the announcement that Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State would join the conference in the summer of 2026. (Utah State later became the seventh full-time member.)

The conference must find an eighth full-time member – a school that competes in football and basketball – by the summer of 2026.

Now that the Zags are on board, where does the Pac-12 turn next?

To the market.

With seven football schools and one basketball powerhouse, the conference has its core structure in place and can start negotiating a media rights agreement to begin in the summer of 2026.

Those negotiations could last weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the deal. The possibilities include the following:

• An exclusive arrangement with one media company (ESPN, for example) that would broadcast Pac-12 football and basketball games over its linear and digital platforms.
• Partnerships with multiple media companies, possibly including ESPN, Fox and the CW, which is broadcasting Pac-12 football games this season and expanding its sports offerings. Or perhaps Turner, which lost its NBA rights and partners with CBS on the NCAA Tournament, will be interested.
• Agreements with linear and streaming companies that would involve Pac-12 Enterprises, the conference’s wholly owned production studio. (The CW is using Pac-12 Enterprises this season to produce Washington State and Oregon State football telecasts.)
• An unprecedented, unknown, not-yet-conceived arrangement that we will simply call Option X.

After all, the Pac-12 can get creative with its membership structure, its media partners and its football scheduling. The conference could add one more school or three more schools. It could play on Sundays or Wednesdays. Each team could play a home-and-home series with a dedicated conference opponent. The schedule could include neutral site games in Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

“It’s all on the table,” said a source familiar with the scheduling strategy.

The blank canvas includes basketball.

“These (expansion) talks were much different because they come from a different place,” Standiford explained during his news conference. “And that is a core part of our decision: To become part of something that is … using the traditions of yesterday to innovate and look at the contemporary nature of what college athletics is and to build something that might be more adaptable than traditional structures.

“It’s super exciting to be around people who think differently and think out of the box.”

The media rights negotiations could lead anywhere, but the top line is the same: The Pac-12’s revenue doesn’t depend on the identity of the eighth full-time member.

There are no schools available that would materially alter the Pac-12’s media valuation now that the seven football schools and Gonzaga are in place. Not even Memphis and Tulane, with their Central Time Zone kickoff windows, will significantly alter the value, industry sources said.

As a result, the standard process for negotiating media rights deals has been flipped: The Pac-12 will head to the negotiating table without a full complement of schools, cut the best deal it can find, then shape the remaining membership slots to fit the media deal.

“Everyone knows they need a minimum of eight full-time members,” a source said. “But the reality is, they have 20 months to meet that minimum.”

The conference retained Navigate, the sports and entertainment consulting firm, to handle expansion, and the company has fielded dozens of calls from interested schools. But official negotiations are on hold while the Pac-12 seeks clarity on a media rights deal.

That process could conclude before Thanksgiving or last into 2025. To borrow one of John Wooden’s best-known phrases, the conference plans to move quickly but not hurry.

Once the framework of a media deal is reached, the membership issue will return to center stage.

Gonzaga “changed the chessboard, opened up some opportunities,” a source said.

“Some of the schools (previously linked to the conference) are not fully off the table.”