Las Vegas • As the Pac-12 media rights deal sputtered and stalled over the last year — so many times creating a public panic — Utah athletics director Mark Harlan seemingly became the public voice of reason.
When reports swirled that Utah would be one of the teams jumping ship from the Pac-12, Harlan tweeted, “Give me a break.” Later on when the Pac-12′s media deal was reportedly teetering on the edge, he said there was nothing to fear.
So when another pseudo-deadline came and went this week for the Pac-12 to secure a television contract and stabilize the league, of course it was Harlan asked again to calm the waters.
In Las Vegas for Pac-12 media day, Harlan shooed away any notion that Utah could be on the move. He said the deal would come. The conference would be fine.
“I think our words and actions speak for themselves,” Harlan said. “We are a proud member of this conference and look forward to its future success.”
Of course, outside of Harlan’s steadying force, the Pac-12 media rights deal has become a spectacle over the last 12 months.
Ever since UCLA and USC bolted for the Big Ten, and the Big 12 secured its television deal, the pressure has been on commissioner George Kliavkoff to do the same. Without a deal, the steady drumbeat of speculation about the conference’s demise would continue.
Just last week Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said, “We all know there’s some challenges in the media market today... Going early was critically important for this conference, giving us stability and clarity.” It was a message clearly aimed at undercutting the Pac-12 and potentially luring some of its members.
But truthfully that was only one comment in a chorus of reports over the last year that have predicted the Pac-12 to fall and members to leave. It has progressively gotten worse as the conference dragged its feet in getting a deal done. First it was last summer, when the Pac-12 left its exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox without a deal. Then reports came out that maybe the Pac-12 could get it done by spring, but that was pushed back to July.
And here we are in July, at another Pac-12 media day without a deal.
But Harlan and Kliavkoff spent the day tamping it down, calling the reports of any members leaving for the Big 12 nothing more than rumors. “I kind of know where the sources of that are coming from,” Kliavkoff said. “I discount that because I know the truth.”
About the only thing they did acknowledge about the speculation was its potential to hurt recruiting.
“The real concern was it was going to affect our recruiting, right?” Kliavkoff said. “Are we going to lose potential student-athletes because of some uncertainty?”
But Harlan took the high road on that again, trying to steer clear from any conversion that would hurt the league or his school.
“I think last year there was a lot of drama… It was not remarkable, it was somewhat expected,” Harlan said. “But the kind of season that we had where our coaches and student-athletes just tuned it all out… We had one of the greatest seasons we’ve seen in this league. I think that was a real sign that all the noise around doesn’t matter.”
The only thing that will truly stop the constant hurling of reports is a deal. Kliavkoff nearly hinted that a deal was done, saying the reason why he didn’t announce a television contract this week was because he wanted to keep the focus on football.
He then backed off that by saying, “I think you are reading too much into that.”
But until then, the strategy is to tamp down the noise. And Harlan was a big part of that.
“If you look at reality, reality is the narrative doesn’t mean much, right?” Harlan said. “The narrative doesn’t mean anything.”
