New Pac-12 commissioner describes her 3 core obligations (2:41)
New Pac 12 commissioner Teresa Gould explains what her function requires to assist the conference move on. (2:41)
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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 29, 2024, 04:42 PM ET
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- Covers the Pac-12.
- Signed up with ESPN in 2014.
- Participated In Washington State University.
A day before she is set to start a two-year dedication as the brand-new commissioner of the Pac-12 conference, Teresa Gould stated the most fundamental part of her task will be to assist the staying 2 schools– Oregon State and Washington State– position themselves for the future.
“That tactical piece is truly being vibrant and being aggressive, being deliberate and truly assaulting these obstacles head on, however likewise being unbiased and ensuring that we’re thinking about all choices,” Gould stated on a videoconference.
“That is most likely the most essential and immediate piece of my function, is to partner with the management on both schools to create that future course for their 2 schools and their athletic programs.”
Gould, who was signed up with by Washington State president Kirk Schulz, did not offer any specifics about what that future might appear like beyond the next 2 seasons, throughout which Oregon State and Washington State will contend in the West Coast Conference in a lot of sports, together with a scheduling collaboration in football with the Mountain West.
For a conference to exist, the NCAA needs “a minimum of 7 active Division I members,” all of which need to sponsor males’s and ladies’s basketball, and for the conference to sponsor a minimum of 12 Division I sports, to name a few requirements.
When it comes to departures, NCAA laws enable a conference a two-year grace duration in which it can exist without the minimum variety of schools. The Pac-12’s grace duration begins in the 2024-25 scholastic year.
“I believe all of us felt that was an essential dedication that I dedicate to remain through the NCAA grace duration and through those 2 arrangements [with the WCC and MWC] to ensure that we’re working together and seeing this overcome,” Gould stated.
Gould verified there have actually not been any official conversations with the Mountain West about a full-on merger or so-called reverse merger that would officially connect Oregon State and Washington State with the MWC member schools.
“Both those conferences understand that we’ve got a multiyear window here where there’s got to be some last landing area for those 2 schools,” Schulz stated. “And so I simply believe we got to keep interactions open backward and forward. We got to ensure that we do not sort of come strutting in there believing we’re simply much better than everyone else of where we were previously. We’ll end up getting our ass kicked if that occurs.
“But I do believe it’s truly crucial for us to keep that collaboration there,