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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 20, 2016

Larry Scott

Seattle, Washington

COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Thanks, and welcome, everyone. Delighted to have you back here at the Pac-12 offices in our women's basketball lounge here today. Try to always find ways to upgrade this event, improve it, and delighted to see all of you here. We have all of our coaches and this year, two student-athletes from each of our schools, which is great. I think they find it a great experience, a learning experience. They enjoy it, and our coaches came to us, and we'd like to bring two of our student-athletes this year, and we said that's terrific.

So I'm very excited to be here talking about Pac-12 women's basketball. I think we've come off arguably our strongest season ever last year where we hit a new milestone, with not only third year in a row of five teams in the NCAA Tournament, but having half the Final Four. That was a great step forward for the conference. From my vantage point, I've seen a steady improvement and development of our women's basketball program since I started in 2009. I think last year really was a seminal moment and a big step forward in terms of the caliber, particularly at the top, and the national recognition. It's certainly a delight to have many recognize the Pac-12 as the strongest and deepest conference in women's basketball right now, and as we approach the season, I certainly see us having a lot of positives to build upon and a great stable of coaches with excellent recruiting classes. I think we had three of the Top 10 recruiting classes in the country by one metric.

I saw, and of course, a tremendous returning players, eight out of the 14, All Pac-12 team members, Kelsey Plum, All American, of course, Freshman of the Year, national Freshman of the Year. It's great. We've got a deep bench to build upon and a lot of great new players that are coming to our teams this year.

We've got a lot of exposure this year for our programs as well. We'll have over 100 women's basketball games telecast nationally. Some very prominent games on ESPN, and then 100 on the Pac-12 Networks. And our season will culminate again in Seattle of the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament. We've been able to steadily build upon that. We're delighted with how Seattle's going. It's a market not only with great promoter partners, but there's a real appreciation for women's basketball. It's a city that a lot of our fans enjoy coming to, and we noticed that it's really got some traction and we can continue to build upon it. So lot of wind in our sails, and we're looking forward to it.

Happy to take questions before we get started with our coaches and student-athletes.

Q. How does having two Pac-12 teams in the Final Four impact the Conference?
LARRY SCOTT: I think it does. Certainly in our discussions with ESPN, the broadcast partner, we found ourselves, we had a lot of conversation around the Final Four supplying them with a lot of feature material, interviews, highlights, all that. Sometimes there's a lag factor, particularly with the East Coast media, that may not have recognized the trajectory of Pac-12 Women's Basketball, the improved depth in our conference, but also the star power some of our teams have had. So I think we snuck up on some people last year. So I think the real benefits will be this season as media partners like ESPN plan their programming schedule and have to decide which games they're going to televise in advance.

Journalists that aren't based here in the West Coast following it regularly, as they're thinking about preseason, what to look for. I think Pac-12 is more on people's radar screen because of the results last year and because of some of the returners that we have. And those that follow it closely enough to follow recruiting will recognize we've got some very, very strong classes coming in.

So, yeah, there's always a bit of a delay or a lag factor. Sometimes it feels like it's kind of turning a ship in the water. Doesn't exactly turn on a dime. But I noticed in terms of national attention and respect, it's starting to happen.

Q. The Pac-12 is going into its second men's basketball game in China this fall. What is the update on having a women's game in China?
LARRY SCOTT: This is the second year of a two-year agreement that we had with our presenting partner, Alibaba, and we have another partner involved as well. We have had women's basketball teams go over before, but not for regular season opening games. So we're actually in discussions right now with our partners over there about possible continuation, extension of our relationship, and an expansion of it.

So we'll see. But if we continue, I'd like to expand it. I don't have a timetable on when we might see a regular season game over there, but it's on our wish list and something we'd like to see happen.

China, I think the two most international markets we're active in right now would be China and Australia. This summer in Australia we had -- Cal played a football game to open the season, as you're aware, but also the UCLA men's and women's basketball teams were down there at the same time on their foreign tour.

So there's real interest, and our team developed some great relationships while they were down there, and that's kind of moved up the totem pole on the priority list because of their interests.

Q. So you expect to continue to have a men's game in China?
LARRY SCOTT: If we continue our relationship over there, yes. That would become an annual fixture, and then it would be a question of over what period of time could we build upon it with other sports.

Q. Larry, I know that you have to cram a schedule in because your women's tournament is a week earlier. But have you thought about looking at trying to spread out the rivalry games, like for example, Oregon, Oregon State, putting the Civil War back-to-back, basically?
LARRY SCOTT: I know, I really haven't been involved in those discussions, but I know our coaches and our sports management team has spent a lot of time on that. Unfortunately, I can't give you a very detailed answer as to why we haven't been able to come up with something different. But I know it's not for lack of discussion.

Q. I wonder if you had any reaction over the Big 12's decision not to expand this week, and if the Pac-12 had been embracing for any changes or when something like that is kind of floating out in the air, if you guys are looking at doing anything or just sort of comfortable where you are?
LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, everyone's always monitoring the landscape and what's going on. Certainly paid attention to it, but I didn't feel like it had any impact on our conference one way or another. We love being 12 teams. We hope there is no more expansion that goes on nationally. We feel 12 is a great fit for us and really don't spend any time talking about expansion.

I didn't feel like whatever they decided was going to have an impact one way or another on us.

Q. With Nnemkadi Ogwumike being the WNBA MVP this season, what are your thoughts on what she needs for this conference and your thoughts on her being the MVP?
LARRY SCOTT: Well, it's awesome to see. Those of us that have followed Pac-12 Women's Basketball and got to see Nnemkadi perform regularly and know what a dominant player she was in our conference, the fact that she's gone on to WNBA and had such a prolific beginning of her career there, I haven't talked to Tara or other coaches about it specifically, but I just know from a recruiting standpoint, a lot of the student-athletes that come to our league come with the hope and expectation that it's going to provide a great pathway to the WNBA. I think that's one of the motivators for prospective student-athletes at the elite level is where do they think they're going to be well coached, groomed, have the type of competition, have the type of exposure where they can then go on and fully develop their games and go on and have successful, professional careers.

So, when you have young graduates and other student-athletes go on to early success in the pro leagues, it absolutely helps. Exposure helps recruiting, helps the credibility. I think, again, a lot of the media following women's basketball are East Coast based, I think it is another proof point, another reason for them to look at our conference differently than they might have previously.

Q. How are you sort of going forward knowing potentially that athletes in the conference may have their thoughts on anthem protests and we're right nearby to where Colin Kaepernick started this thing?
LARRY SCOTT: Yeah, so, it's a topic that comes up during all my campus visits. Just had two days of meetings here with our athletics director, senior administrators, faculty, and it's something people are very attentive to. What I've said and feel strongly about is that we as a general rule ought to support student-athletes having a voice and feeling like they can have an impact in society. That's what our universities are training students. Forget about student-athletes. That's what they're training students to do is to think critically, to challenge ideas and think about how they can make an impact on the world.

I've always looked at sports as we're fortunate to work in sports, those that are in sports, particularly the athletes, have a platform and they have the opportunity to effect social change because of their celebrity, because of the attention. I think with that opportunity comes responsibility as well to realize that you're role models, people are paying attention to what you do. And with that there is an obligation. You have to hold yourself to a higher standard and treat that opportunity that you have with a measure of responsibility and maturity.

So in general, I'm certainly an advocate of student-athletes recognizing that they've got opportunity that, that sport can play a very positive role in effecting social change. Certainly I've witnessed that in my career here and in other places before, and support that.

I would always also support as to our schools that their student-athletes be well informed, that they understand the implications of what they are doing, and that they do deliver whatever message they want to deliver not only in an educated and informed fashion, but they do so in a way that's respectful to their teammates and the institution that they represent.

All right, everyone. Have a great day. Thank you for being here, and we look forward to seeing you later.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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