What Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff Wants To Accomplish In Football Scheduling
Jan 14, 2022, 1:03 PM
(Photo courtesy of John McGillen, Pac-12)
(Photo courtesy of John McGillen, Pac-12)
SALT LAKE CITY – Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff has a long list of things he wants to accomplish but making football more competitive is at the top.
When George Kliavkoff took the job back in June, he talked about putting Pac-12 football back into the College Football Playoff and making them more competitive.
Kliavkoff joined DJ & PK on The Zone Sports Network on Friday morning and spent 30 minutes discussing a variety of topics. Catch the full interview, below.
Getting Football Competitive Again Starts With Scheduling
Kliavkoff mentioned that he has a list of things that has never made sense in college sports. At the top of that list is scheduling games out 10, 12 and 15 years ahead of time. He pointed out Utah’s home-and-home series with LSU in 2031 and 2032.
“So Nirvana, North Star for football scheduling for the Alliance is eventually, we each get to a place where we’ve agreed to play eight conference games and one game against each of the other conferences every year,” Kliavkoff told The Zone Sports Network. “So Pac-12 teams would have eight conference games, one game against the ACC, one game against the Big Ten. One of those games would be home, the other would be away, that would switch from year to year. Games 11 and 12, the athletic director and the football coach can schedule, they can make sure they have seven home games, they can make sure they have two games that are non power-five games, if that’s what that’s what they want.”
That would allow the individual schools to be more dynamic in scheduling and not having to lock big games down over 10 years ahead of time.
“The amazing part is our 12 teams know that they’ve got 12 games against the Big Ten, 12 games against the ACC, is you don’t have to schedule those years in advance,” said Kliavkoff. “You wait till the end of the previous season. You look at matchups for next season and you schedule those matchups. It allows you to be much more dynamic about creating great product. Lots of hurdles to get there. It’ll be several years. But I think eventually we’ll get there.”
It will be interesting to see how the Alliance shapes over the next couple of years.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com, Co-Host of Faith, Family and Football podcast with Clark Phillips III and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports.
