George Kliavkoff on his approach to Pac-12, college football

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff has a simple approach to leading his conference. In a Friday appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, the commissioner said he tries to be as honest as possible with everyone.

“I want to be transparent about what I see,” Kliavkoff said. “I do take a different perspective because I don’t have a background in college athletics. My approach has always been just to be transparent about what I see and to try more collaboratively to come to solutions. I’ve been transparent about some of the issues that I see broadly in college athletics, which are real threats to what we do collectively as a business. I’ve also been clear about the deficits I see in our conference that we have to work on, but at the same time praising the things we do well.”

Kliavkoff took over as Pac-12 commissioner on July 1. He was previously the president of entertainment and sports for MGM Resorts International.

Since assuming the role of Pac-12 leader, George Kliavkoff has not been afraid to speak out on topics such a Playoff expansion. In the same interview with Finebaum, he said he is in favor of expansion despite a recent 12-team proposal being rejected.

“I’ve endorsed all of the three eight-team and all of the three twelve-team proposals that have been discussed,” stated Kliavkoff. “Those include no automatic qualifiers, six automatic qualifiers, or five plus one — five being going to the autonomy five, and one being to the next best conference champion.”

It should be noted that the Pac-12 is a conference that would certainly stand to benefit from an expanded playoff. Of the Power 5 conferences, Kliavkoff’s league is the one with the least appearances at two. The last time a Pac-12 school made the Playoff was in 2016 with Washington.

Prior to the rejected proposal, the goal was to expand the Playoff by the 2024 season. The expanded field had plenty of supporters when it was proposed in June. However, the news that came the following month that Oklahoma and Texas would leave the Big 12 for the SEC would cause many to back off of the idea.

Even so, it seems inevitable that the field will be expanded eventually. Until then, expect George Kliavkoff to continue to speak his mind on that and several other issues surrounding college football.