Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff said USC and UCLA's move to the Big Ten was made "for short-term financial gain at the expense of their student-athletes," and the schools "are already regretting it," according to Bruce Feldman of THE ATHLETIC. Kliavkoff added USC and UCLA "will regret it more as time goes on" given the "pushback that they’ve gotten from almost every corner of their communities." One Pac-12 AD on Friday said that the "most surprising aspect of the move was on the UCLA side," since it is a "public school connected to" Cal. Another Pac-12 AD said they "accepted the notion that UCLA could not uncouple from Cal" because they are both under the Univ. of California Board of Regents, and it "makes no logical sense that the same oversight board would vault one at the detriment, the expense, of the other." Meanwhile, Kliavkoff did "not hold back his feelings" for Big 12 leadership in the "wake of what he said have been numerous overtures to try to poach Pac-12 programs that, he says, have been forwarded to him from administrators in his league." Kliavkoff said that he and new Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark “have talked a couple of times in the past month.” Kliavkoff “declined to go into the specifics of how Yormark responded" to his claims about Big 12 leadership, but said, “It’d be in the best interest of college athletics if both conferences are strong” (THEATHLETIC.com, 8/1).
Pac-12's Kliavkoff says USC, UCLA 'already regretting' Big Ten move
