PAC-12 CONFERENCE: New Pac-12 commissioner is ‘prepared to fight’ for Washington State, Oregon State

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Mar. 1—The day before she officially stepped into her new office, new Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould pledged her support to Washington State and Oregon State as the schools and the beleaguered conference continue to navigate their uncertain futures.

Gould and WSU President Kirk Schulz spoke on a variety of topics Thursday, ranging from the College Football Playoffs, the athletics budget deficit at Washington State, the goals and responsibilities Gould inherited, conversations about potential conference mergers and more.

Gould starts as the new commissioner today with a contract set for two years while WSU and OSU traverse their grace period as a two-member conference. The Pac-12’s other 10 schools — USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, California, Stanford — are all leaving for new conferences after the spring sports season concludes.

“Ever since everything transpired in the Pac-12 back in August, there hasn’t been a night that has gone by that I haven’t thought about the more than 1,000 student athletes on the campuses of Oregon State and Washington State,” Gould said. “All I could think about is they need a leader who is prepared to fight for them … and I want to be that leader.”

Here’s a look at the conversation between Gould, Schulz and media from across the nation in a 45-minute interview session Thursday:

Gould’s responsibilities

Gould takes over for departed Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, who agreed to part ways with the league after he failed to secure a TV rights deal and 10 of the schools decided to jump ship for the Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference.

WSU and OSU next season will play football in a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West Conference and play most other sports in the West Coast Conference.

But they are still technically members of…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pac-12-conference-pac-12-224600299.html

Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho

Publish date : 2024-03-01 22:46:00

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