He said that he stepped into the role at an unusually complex time, with NIL, Alston and also the NCAA redistributing roles and policy to individual schools.
And then...
OU and Texas made their announcements and things got really complex.
He said that many schools (at least 12) approached the Pac and asked to join. The Pac formed an evaluation committee formed of 6 University Presidents and 6 ADs. He said schools were evaluated on what you would expect: Media markets, academics, competitive sports, cultural fit and a bunch of other stuff. None of them passed the test, but it sounds like there were some contenders (I thought that he hinted that Houston and Okie State were two of them, but he didn't say so explicitly).
It sounds like he may have initiated the partnership with the Big (but didn't say so explicitly) and then they looked to that ACC. They like the commissioner there, and he said, "You think that the SEC move had an impact on the Pac 12? Imagine that you're sharing territory with the SEC. And now imagine that you have the lowest TV contract of any major conference, and imagine that you couldn't renegotiate that contract for another 15 years. We reached out and feel that our moves have stabilized the college football landscape."
They (he and Rick) were also glad that the Big 12 stabilized too. They felt that was good for college football.
He is really excited about the alliance of conferences - particularly in what it means for football games. First off, the schedule will be finalized 8 months before the season in order to create the most compelling matchups. Next, he's excited that the alliance will be able to offer an interconference game every single week during the season, and across all timezones. He said the late games will always incorporate Pac 12, but they will be targeted to hit prime-time on the East Coast.
He talked about our TV negotiation in two years and seems to be eyeing CBS (but again, not explicit about it) in a way that the current contract won't allow him. He doesn't seem optimistic about passing the SEC (they just gained 75% of the Big 12's views). But he does we will be right there with the next Big 10 contract. He didn't say it, but it was easy to surmise that the ACC and the Big 12 are going to get passed up on TV.
It was really the way he explained things that was useful. He's a great communicator and really clear on how he operates and what he values. He's tough not to like.