George Kliavkoff

Last updated
George Kliavkoff
Current position
TitleCommissioner
Conference Pac-12
Biographical details
Born1967 (age 5657)
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
2021–2024 Pac-12 (commissioner)

George Kliavkoff (born 1967) is an American business person and college athletic administrator. He was most recently the commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference, a position he held from 2021 until 2024. Kliavkoff previously held positions at Major League Baseball, NBCUniversal, Hulu, A&E Networks and — most recently prior to his Pac-12 appointment — MGM Resorts International. [1]

Contents

Kliavkoff's tenure at the Pac-12 saw 10 of the 12 member schools announce plans to depart the conference, and his time at the helm of the conference was described by The Mercury News as "catastrophic." [2]

Early life and education

Kliavkoff attended Boston University, graduating in 1989 where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, μψ chapter, and participated in rowing. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia in 1993. [3]

Career

Kliavkoff launched his professional career as a lawyer before pivoting to a long line of positions in sports and entertainment. After four years at RealNetworks, he joined Major League Baseball in 2003 as an executive vice president for business with MLB Advanced Media. After three years in MLB, he became the chief digital officer for NBCUniversal where he lateraled into Hulu. He moved to Hearst Communications in 2009 where he would spend seven years. In 2016, he was named CEO of Jaunt XR, a virtual reality content studio.

In 2018, Kliavkoff settled in Las Vegas and was named president of entertainment and sports at MGM Resorts International. He served on a number of Las Vegas-based boards including T-Mobile Arena, Cirque du Soleil and BetMGM. [4]

During his tenure with MGM, Kliavkoff served on the WNBA's Board of Governors, representing the Las Vegas Aces. [5] He oversaw MGM's sale of the Aces to Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis in 2021. [6]

Pac-12 Conference

On May 13, 2021, Kliavkoff was announced as the Pac-12's choice to replace outgoing commissioner Larry Scott. [7] He assumed the role on July 1, 2021, which began a five-year contract. [8] University of Oregon president Michael H. Schill led the five-person search committee and described Kliavkoff as "the new prototype for a sports commissioner." [9]

Kliavkoff inherited an embattled conference that faced issues with contentious campus relationships, lack of representation in the College Football Playoff, reports of irresponsible conference office spending [10] [11] and shrinking television rights revenues due to the poor performance of the Pac-12 Network. [12]

Kliavkoff led an effort to form an alliance between the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC, with the goal of creating non-conference scheduling opportunities and stabilizing membership. [13]

One day shy of Kliavkoff's one-year anniversary as commissioner of the conference, Pac-12 mainstays USC and UCLA unexpectedly announced intentions to depart for the Big Ten Conference, a move considered "gutting for the future of the Pac-12." [14] On July 27, 2023, Colorado announced it would also leave the Pac-12 in 2024. [15] With the conference reduced to nine teams, Kliavkoff was forced to present the best current media-rights offer on the table to the league's remaining members in hopes of fending off further departures. He did so on August 1, 2023, reportedly revealing an incentive-based deal with Apple with guaranteed payments of around $20 million per school per year, over $10 million less than the rival Big 12 deal. [16] The offer was met with largely negative feedback and began rumors of further defections. [17]

The Pac-12 reportedly was close to sticking together and signing a grant-of-rights contract on the morning of August 4, 2023, [18] with "momentum slowed" between Oregon, Washington, and the Big Ten. [19] However, hours later, Oregon and Washington eventually signed on with the Big Ten, [20] spurring a later departure of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12. [21]

With four schools remaining — California, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State — Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 issued a statement late on August 4 that its new focus is "securing the best possible future for each of our member universities." [22] On September 1, it was announced that California and Stanford would be departing the Pac-12 for the ACC in 2024. [23]

On September 8, 2023, Oregon State and Washington State — the only two remaining schools in the conference — filed a lawsuit against the Pac-12 and Kliavkoff in Washington State Superior Court for control of the conference, contending that the departing schools, under the conference constitution, forfeited their right to participate in governing the conference by publicly declaring their intention to leave, and that if they retain control they might use it to dissolve the league and drain its millions of dollars in assets. [24]

On February 19, 2024, the Pac-12 board of directors announced that Teresa Gould would replace Kliavkoff as commissioner on March 1. [25]

Personal life

Kliavkoff grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He and his wife Ellen have two children. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Ten Conference</span> American collegiate athletics conference

The Big Ten Conference is the oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of ten prominent universities, which accounts for its name. On August 2, 2024, the conference expanded to 18 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain West Conference</span> Athletic conference

The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on January 4, 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member schools located in California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as an associate member in Hawaii. Gloria Nevarez took over as commissioner of the MW on January 1, 2023, following the retirement of founding commissioner Craig Thompson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pac-12 Conference</span> American collegiate athletics conference

The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that operates in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level of NCAA football competition. The conference comprises two members, Oregon State and Washington State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Pacific Sports Federation</span> American collegiate athletic conference

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it has added members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level, primarily in Olympic sports that are not sponsored by a school's primary conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Power Four conferences</span> Group of top-level American college football conferences

The Power Four conferences, known from 2014–2023 as the Power Five conferences, are the most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation, and are considered the most elite conferences within that tier. The Power Four conferences have provided most of the participants in the College Football Playoff since its inception, and generally have larger revenue, budgets, and television viewership than other college athletic programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament</span> American collegiate basketball postseason

The Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament, otherwise known as the Pac-12 tournament, was the annual concluding tournament for the NCAA college basketball in the Pac-12, taking place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. The first tournament was held in 1987 for the Pac-10 conference. It ended after four seasons. The conference did not have a conference tournament until it was started again in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision</span> Top level of college football in the U.S.

The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2024 season, there are 10 conferences and 134 schools in FBS.

Larry Scott is an American sports administrator and former professional tennis player who was the commissioner of the collegiate Pac-12 Conference until 2021. He has also served as chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association and as president and COO of ATP Properties, a division of the Association of Tennis Professionals.

A superconference is an athletic conference noted for its large number of members, significant revenue generation, and substantial power that it wields in comparison to at least some of its counterpart conferences. The term is typically used in reference to college athletics in the United States. Because superconferences are emergent and not clearly defined, the term is often used in a hypothetical and speculative way, although one definition of American college superconferences posits that they must form from leagues that were Automatic Qualifying (AQ) conferences during the era of the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series, possess a significant multi-network television deal, and at least consider expanding to the "magic number" of 16 members. The term, though used infrequently before 2010, has historical roots in the proposed "Airplane Conference" of 1959, the Metro Conference's 1990 plan to expand to 16 members, the expansion of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to 16 members in 1996, and the creation of 12-team, two-division conferences with football championship games by the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12 Conference, and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the 1990s and 2000s. Since major conference realignment began in 2010, the term has been used to describe the expanding ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC conferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pac-12 Network</span> College sports television network

The Pac-12 Network (P12N), sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks, was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities were headquartered in San Ramon, California.

Men's college basketball in the Pac-12 Conference began in 1915 with the formation of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). Principal members of the PCC founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959, and subsequently went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, and Pacific-10, becoming the Pac-12 in 2011. The Pac-12 includes the PCC as part of its history despite the two leagues being formed under separate charters. Competing in the Pac-12 are the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, California Golden Bears, Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon Ducks, Oregon State Beavers, Stanford Cardinal, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Utah Utes, Washington Huskies, and Washington State Cougars.

ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel operates from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, though some programming and staff is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Pac-12 Conference football season</span> Sports season

The 2021 Pac-12 Conference football season was the 43rd season of Pac-12 football taking place during the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season began on August 28, 2021, and ended with the 2021 Pac-12 Championship Game on December 3, 2021, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Pac-12 Conference football season</span> Sports season

The 2022 Pac-12 Conference football season was the 44th edition of Pac-12 football during the 2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season began on September 1, 2022, and ended with the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game on December 2, 2022, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment</span> Changes in US college athletic conferences

Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level.

The 2022–23 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October followed by the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season which started on November 7, 2022. Conference play began in December 2022. This was the eleventh season under the Pac–12 Conference name and the 64th since the current Pac-12 charter was established in 1959. Because the Pac-12 includes the history of the Pacific Coast Conference, which existed from 1915 to 1959, in its own history, this was the 108th season of Pac-12 men's basketball.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season</span> American college football season

The 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 154th season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The regular season began on August 26 and ended on December 9. The postseason began on December 15, and, aside from any all-star games that are scheduled, ended on January 8, 2024, with the College Football Playoff National Championship at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 Pac-12 Conference football season</span> Sports season

The 2023 Pac-12 Conference football season was the 45th season of Pac-12 football taking place during the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season began on August 26, 2023, and ended with the 2023 Pac-12 Championship Game on December 1, 2023, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CW Sports</span> Sports division of American broadcast network The CW

CW Sports is the sports programming division of The CW that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried on the network.

<i>ACC on The CW</i> American TV series or program

The ACC on The CW is a presentation of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college athletics broadcast by The CW, and produced by Raycom Sports.

References

  1. "Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff". pac-12.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2021. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  2. Wilner, Jon (2024-03-05). "Pac-12 collapse: Kliavkoff's failed tenure ends with radio silence, no signs of remorse". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  3. "Pac-12 hires MGM Resorts exec George Kliavkoff as new commissioner". Orange County Register. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  4. Fortuna, Matt. "Pac-12 leader George Kliavkoff has a much bigger commissioner job now than in law school, one he appears well-built to handle". The Athletic. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  5. Nguyen, Thuc Nhi (2021-05-13). "Who is George Kliavkoff, the new Pac-12 commissioner?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  6. Raley, Dan (2021-05-13). "Pac-12 Names MGM's George Kliavkoff as New Commissioner". Sports Illustrated Washington Huskies News, Analysis and More. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  7. "Pac-12 hires 'outsider' George Kliavkoff as its new commissioner". Los Angeles Times. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  8. Staff, Aiko Sudijono | (2021-05-14). "George Kliavkoff hired as new Pac-12 commissioner". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  9. "Pac-12's new hire George Kliavkoff 'is the new prototype for a sports commissioner'". Deseret News. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  10. Oregonian/OregonLive, John Canzano | The (2019-03-12). "Canzano: The view from the Pac-12 Conference's Imperial Palace lacks visibility". oregonlive. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  11. "Pac-12 shift from SF offices to work-from-home projects big savings". Awful Announcing. 2022-03-30. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  12. "Pac-12 commissioner search ends in unlikely place (which was entirely predictable): With an MGM Resorts executive". The Mercury News. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  13. Shapiro, Michael. "Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC Announce Conference Alliance". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  14. "USC, UCLA approved to move to Big Ten in 2024". ESPN.com. 2022-06-30. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  15. "Colorado votes to join Big 12 in major college football realignment move". College Football HQ. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  16. "Pac-12 media deal: Commish presents Apple offer with no agreement reached by conference leaders". CBSSports.com. 2023-08-02. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  17. Bologna, Ryan (2023-08-02). "RUMOR: Oregon, Washington Emerge As Big Ten Expansion Options Amid Pac-12 Uncertainty". ClutchPoints. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  18. Sports, Arizona (2023-08-04). "Reports: Pac-12 doesn't vote on future, Arizona to Big 12 on hold". Arizona Sports. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  19. Wells, Adam. "Report: Oregon, Washington's Potential Move from Pac-12 to Big Ten Losing Momentum". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  20. "Big Ten 'excited' as Oregon, Washington join". ESPN.com. 2023-08-04. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  21. "Utah, Arizona and Arizona State leave Pac-12 for Big 12 in latest realignment shakeup". Yahoo Sports. 2023-08-05. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  22. "Statement from the Pac-12 Conference: Aug. 4, 2023". pac-12.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  23. "Stanford, Cal, SMU join ACC: Conference membership growing to 18 schools as latest realignment domino falls".
  24. Russo, Ralph (September 8, 2023). "OSU, WSU ask court to prevent departing Pac-12 schools from standing in way of rebuilding conference". Associated Press . Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  25. "Pac-12 promotes Teresa Gould to replace George Kliavkoff as conference commissioner". AP News. 2024-02-19. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
  26. "Breadth of experience, including media, attracts Pac-12 to Kliavkoff". www.sportsbusinessjournal.com. Retrieved 2022-07-07.