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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: STANFORD vs USCDecember 5, 2015Larry ScottSanta Clara, California LARRY SCOTT: Good afternoon, thanks for being here. Delighted to be here at Levi's Stadium once again to culminate what's been a terrific and historic Pac‑12 football season for the Pac‑12 Football Championship game. This afternoon's match‑up between USC and Stanford will be the finale of a record‑breaking season for the Pac‑12 on a couple of fronts. This season we had five teams at different points in the AP top 10; and for the first time ever, Pac‑12 had ten bowl‑eligible teams. This is 10 out of only 12 schools. It's the reason why I sit here at the end of our season feeling confident we've had the deepest conference in the country this year, and certainly the deepest the Pac‑12 has ever been, which is very gratifying for me as commissioner to see what the trajectory of this conference has been over the last few years, to see the steady progression of depth and competitiveness throughout the conference. It's a testament to our universities, their leadership, the commitment that's been made to facilities, supporting student‑athletes, exposure that our partners help us get, what that's all meant to recruiting, and of course, the amazing job that our coaches do. We've got a very high‑caliber group of coaches throughout the conference. And certainly delighted, I guess this is the first official occasion I have to welcome Clay Helton, now having been named permanent head coach of USC, of this esteemed group of Pac‑12 head coaches. I know the Trojans are very excited about his leadership. We congratulate him as well as Coach David Shaw at Stanford, who has had a very impressive run as Stanford's head coach. Both Stanford and USC have had very difficult paths to the Pac‑12 football championship game. In addition to strong non‑conference competition, we're the only conference this year that's had regular season games. So I've been saying all along, and looking at how the season has shaped up confidently saying whoever winds up being the Pac‑12 Champion will have been through the toughest course of any conference champion throughout the country, having had to withstand nine conference games, a Conference Championship Game. And then, of course, when you look at the non‑conference schedules of both these teams, both faced a top‑10 Notre Dame team. And in the case of Stanford, of course also played on the road against another Power Five conference team, Northwestern, a ranked team away. So no one has had really a tougher path to become a conference champion than either Stanford or USC will have had. Either team, whoever wins today, will certainly be deserving of playing in the College Football Playoff or New Year's sixth bowl, Rose Bowl, as part of that mix. So there is going to be a very attractive prize for the champion of this game, though sitting here right now, I'm not sure what that prize is going to be. It depends on what happens in the rest of the country and who wins and all of that. But certainly both teams have very impressive resumes. The other thing that is historic about this season for us is that we're celebrating our 100th anniversary as a conference. And to commemorate that, we asked for help from many of you in the media, as well as former players and coaches, to help us nominate a Pac‑12 All Century Football Team. It's a very difficult task when you look at the pedigree and heritage of this proud conference. A lot of great legends of the game have played for Pac‑12 schools, talking about Heisman Trophy winners, consensus All‑Americans, All‑Conference players and a list of awards that Pac‑12 players have won, individual awards, very impressive, a very long list. But this group that we pulled together came up with 50 players and one coach, and really this group represents the very iconic nature of the conference. We're truly honored that many of them are actually here with us at the game today. We're going to have a chance to honor some of these players on the field right before the game. And as Eric mentioned, amongst that group of All Century players, there were three that were called out specifically, an Offensive Player of the Century, John Elway; Defensive Player of the Century, Ronnie Lott; and Pac‑12 Coach of the Century, John McKay. So we're delighted that those three are represented here today. John, Ronnie and JK McKay are representing his father. So today's going to be an exciting day, and they're all going to be participating in the pre‑game activities on the field as well as with the teams. This is our second year here in Santa Clara at Levi's. We're excited about this event. Certainly want to thank our partner, City of Santa Clara, the 49ers, our friends at Levi's Stadium. I think we're going to have a great crowd today. This game today will represent the nice progression from last year, which was our first year, and we're looking forward to more years here. We, in fact, after last year's game made some amendments to our contract with the 49ers and Levi's and Santa Clara, and have extended our term by one year with them. So after this year's game, we'll be here at least two more years for two more games. On top of that, it's been great to see Levi's Stadium, City of Santa Clara recognized by being awarded the 2019 College Football Playoff Championship game. It was clearly a place where big‑time college and professional football is going to be played. In addition to the 49ers having Super Bowl 50, it's going to be here, having a regular, end‑of‑season bowl game, having our football championship game, then the College Football Playoff Championship game. We're fortunate to be able to play the Pac‑12 Football Championship game in a venue that really is becoming the iconic West Coast destination for big‑time football games. So thank you, again, for being here today. Appreciate it. Also wanted to recognize Chris Dufresne. I don't see Chris. Is Chris here? I'm not seeing him. He's running late. Okay. Well, I had a chance to reach out to Chris, but I did want to recognize him in front of you all as his colleagues for being such an important contributor to the reporting and presentation and recognition for West Coast football. He's been an important voice. Sometimes critical, but a really well‑regarded voice for West Coast college football. Really well regarded nationally, and we appreciate his commitment. Sorry to see him leaving "The Times". But thank you all for being here. We're excited about the game, and happy to take any questions that you've got, and I know I'm going to be joined as well by John and Ronnie. Happy to take any questions that you have. Q. With regards to the 100th anniversary team, there was a 50th anniversary team put out, and those who voted don't necessarily now remember the guys from 50 and beyond ago. Was there any thought to mentioning those teams in some way that gives recognition to those older guys that aren't around anymore? LARRY SCOTT: I can't say I'm that familiar with the exact instructions that were given. But having spoken to a couple of the voters, I know they were meant to take into account the full century, not just the last 50 years. But of course the people that are now voting are going to be more familiar with the last half century. So I think that's inherently a challenge. But they were meant to take into account the full century. Q. On virtual reality technology developed by Stanford that's available to teams and other conferences in the NFL, but so far not available to other Pac‑12 teams, does the Pac‑12 have a position on the competitive issue there maybe? LARRY SCOTT: Yes, so I've been intrigued by the virtual reality technology generally, and specifically what's been developed down at Stanford. I had a chance, I guess, about six weeks ago to spend the day down at Stanford with our senior team at the graduate school where they're doing the work and meeting with one of the companies that's an offshoot from Stanford. STRIVR I think is the name, to examine the technology and experience it myself. It really is fascinating. We were certainly there with our folks from football to understand what the applications could be from a football coaching perspective, a health and wellness perspective, but also an officiating perspective. We had David Coleman down there with us. So I think there are a lot of different potential uses of the VR technology. We talked to them as well about what the approach is. My understanding is there is nothing exclusive about their approach to Stanford. That they are in conversations with other Pac‑12 schools and other schools outside of the conference. So I'm not aware there is any issue in that regard. Q. Anything new in regard to the networks being more widely distributed on DIRECTV or other carriers? LARRY SCOTT: No new news, no. Q. Is that just at a standstill? No conversation? LARRY SCOTT: For the moment, yes. There's not been any recent conversation of substance. We're in regular communication with AT&T, who is an existing partner of ours, on the sponsorship side and side with U‑verse, but there have been no negotiations since they broke off toward the beginning of the season. Q. Chris Dufresne is in the room with us. LARRY SCOTT: I had a chance, Chris, at the end of my prepared remarks, I wanted to thank you in front of your colleagues for all your commitment of following West Coast football. Your reporting certainly very well respected nationally, and it meant a lot to the exposure and following of the conference. We appreciate that, despite your often sharp criticisms of the conference office and its commissioner. Appreciate all your support over the years. Q. In regards to the schedule, do you anticipate any movement with the Power Five conference with everybody playing similar schedules in the regular season? LARRY SCOTT: I do think there will be movement over time. I would like to see us have as much conformity as possible, especially as long as we've got a four‑team playoff where you don't have an automatic spot into a playoff by virtue of being a champion, such that this committee has to compare the performance of teams. I've described it as everyone's running a race, but over slightly different course. There are slightly different lengths of that course for some conferences, and there are different degrees of difficulty on that course for one conference compared to another. So I certainly think it would be more fair and certainly easier for a committee to compare and contrast teams if you played a similar number of conference games. If everyone had a Conference Championship Game, and if‑‑ the third thing is if there was some way to assure that non‑conference opponents were going to be of a similar ilk. It will never be precise. There are so many differences. And you can schedule‑‑ I think Stanford scheduled UCF when they were a top 20 team and they weren't a top 20 team this year. It will never be science. But I'd like to see there be some more consistency in terms of approach. It would make the job of the committee a little bit easier and seem a little bit more fair. But there is no mechanism at the moment to force it. Having said that, I do believe the Pac‑12 has been on the forefront of trying to do it the right way and embracing the stiffest competition possible by playing non‑conference games, having a championship game, and the fact that the culture of our schools is to take on top‑notch competition, so USC and Stanford with their annual match‑up against Notre Dame, and our schools also regularly embracing top, non‑conference, Power Five opponents, as in the case of Stanford this year, even on top of their Notre Dame game. I think that's the right way to do it. I think it's in the best interest of student‑athletes that want to play big‑time opponents. Our fans that want to see our schools playing, and for the overall sport, I think it's the healthiest. I was pleased to see that the Big Ten is going to be following suit and playing nine conference games plus a championship game next year. I'm pleased to see that the Big 12 is now seriously entertaining adding a championship game. And I do think over time you will see some of the other conferences consider going to nine conference games. I think one of the reasons they'll consider it is the commissioners have been clear in our direction to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, that when they are evaluating teams with comparable records or that are somehow similarly situated, that the tiebreaking mechanism ought to be are you a conference champion and what was your strength of schedule? And if you listened to Jeff Long last season and this season so far, and certainly watching how last season played out and the decisions that were made, I think that has been a point of emphasis for the Committee. So I do think you will see‑‑ I'd like to see the rest of the conferences gravitate there even though I don't think we'll be able to do it by fiat. Q. David Coleman, the head of the officiating in the season, maybe talk about the impact he's had on the conference this year? LARRY SCOTT: So I'm delighted with the job David's done in the first year. We'll do a full assessment after the season is over, but David has brought, first and foremost, a full‑time commitment to the oversight of officiating. So our appointment to David Coleman represents in the clearest and most significant way, the priority that the conference puts on having the most professional, the most comprehensive approach to leadership of officiating possible. It's a departure from what we did in the past where it was a part‑time role. In fact, the last few years with Tony Corrente at the helm, a terrific guy, he was balancing what with being an on‑field NFL official. So we made the decision as a conference that it was important enough to make investment to have someone full‑time on the one hand, and secondly to find the best possible person we could find, and David was number two in the officiating department in the NFL. Very highly regarded. Not just as a leader in the area of officiating, but also as a trainer. That's something I've tried to emphasize. It's of critical importance because we do lose officials to the NFL, and we're constantly looking to improve the pipeline, identify talent. So I think in David, we've got one of the best people in the country as a leader and administrator in the area of officiating, but also as a trainer and identifier of talent. And I like some of the new systems he's put in place, some of the training. But most importantly the accountability measures that are in place. I think we're on the right path. Q. Did you outline the agenda of your meeting with your network partners? LARRY SCOTT: With which partners? Q. Network partners. LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, from memory, this is an annual meeting with ESPN and Fox. Is that the meeting you're referring to? Q. Yes, and stuff like night games and all that will be discussed? LARRY SCOTT: Yes, so we have an annual meeting when the season is over with ESPN/Fox, where we do a season review, and we'll be reviewing with them how Pac‑12 games fared. We talk about a lot of different scheduling issues, some logistic and operational issues. And one of the items on the agenda, I think every year since our new agreement, which stuck with them, was the number of night games that we have, and any possible measures we could take to either reduce the number of night games and/or figure out a way to spread them as evenly and fairly among our teams as possible. We know night games are a reality of our new TV contracts. Everyone went in with their eyes wide open when we got offered significantly increased revenues, and we moved from being on Fox and ABC's regional platforms to every game having to be fully nationally, that part of that trade was giving them more night games. Just to put that in perspective, in our past TV deal, we still had 25% of our games that were played at night. I looked at these stats the other day and getting ready for that in this upcoming meeting. 25% of our games under the old TV‑‑ there is an impression out there that the Pac‑12 didn't play night games and now all of a sudden we're playing night games, which isn't the case. So 25% of our games were night games in our past TV contract. It's now ratcheted up to 33%. So we've gone from a quarter to about a third of our games that are now played at night. So not an insignificant change, but it's probably less of a change than in some markets people have the impression that it's been more of a change. At any rate, we don't take that lightly, and we're trying to balance on the one hand, very clear commitments all of our schools made when we received the increased revenue and increased exposure that we got. We knew we'd have to play more night games. But now dealing with the reality is it creates some real tension and upset amongst the paying fan base that goes to our games. So it's a juggling act, and we're trying to balance it as best as possible. Q. Along the same line, is there anything that can be done about putting three marquis games on at the same time like the case tonight? You have three. It seems to be counter‑productive in terms of what's best for the fans. Is that just a network versus network deal in ratings? LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, yeah, for the most part it is. Well, this game we actually toggled back and forth between Friday night and Saturday. It's completely dependent on who our broadcast partner is. We alternate between Fox and ESPN/ABC. When Fox has the game, they like the game on a Friday. The reason is they have the Big Ten game in this slot on Fox. They prefer us on a different day. It's a great example. The TV ratings tend to be better on a Friday night. You have less competition. But it's tough for our fans here in the San Francisco area to get out here for a 6:00 p.m. Friday night kick, in Santa Clara, with all the traffic here in the Bay Area. When ESPN broadcasts, they don't want to play this championship game Friday night. They'd prefer it on Saturday. They've got multiple platforms, so they're looking at a cumulative audience. And the fact that the ACC game's going to be on ACC while this game's on ESPN, and we're up against their competition, they like it because they think this is going to maximize cumulative ratings from their perspective. So that's what is driving it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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