Death, taxes, and Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott continuing to show he is an ineffectual leader as and the Conference has yet another faux pas.
It seems like we can’t go a couple weeks without hearing more negative news about Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, and his ineptitude as a leader.
Thanks again to Oregonian writer John Canzano who continues to enlightens us (at least anyone who pays attention) about how Larry continues to be a proverbial pain in the sides of Pac-12 fans and its member institutions.
Arizona Wildcats
In his latest article from this past weekend, John broke yet another bombshell which continues to show the gross misutilization of funds and pure negligence on the Pac-12s part by spending money foolishly.
In essence, what John revealed was that the Pac-12 was basically paying the Los Angeles Times for positive news.
Yes, you read that right, in what is basically a quid pro quo situation here, the Pac-12 is giving the LA Times money, and in return, supposedly gets good publicity.
Call it a form of “advertising” if you will, but in an era where journalists and national publications as big as the LA Times are being scrutinized as being “Fake News”, it seems impartiality, honesty and integrity would be deemed valuable qualities in a profession such as journalism. Alas, money speaks.
Now look, as much as I hate to admit it, I understand the conference and Larry can spend their money and budget as they wish, but essentially bribing a publication to only print positive news seems like a major conflict of interest.
If it were that easy to just buy off journalist, which prominent voices would then be left to call out people like Larry for when they are obviously failing at their job?
And he is failing. Look no further than the conference’s high rent prices, high salary for its commissioner, its awful media deal, mediocre revenue share for its member institutions, etc.
It seems like the list of negative things to come during Larry Scott’s tenure as conference commissioner is growing by the day. This latest instance just seems to be the “icing on the cake”.
So given the conferences’ mediocre revenue pay outs, it seems like things could be so much better for it’s member schools and for Arizona Athletics in particular. If they didn’t spend money to essentially bribe the LA Times, or pay the highest rent for its headquarters compared to any other conference, or at least have a deal with DirecTV, maybe we wouldn’t be in what feels like a poor spot.
Either way, we need change in a bad way from the top down, and I can’t understand how the rest of the conference continues to be okay with keeping Larry. Here’s to hoping things finally change soon!