🏈 🔵 Breaking Down My Conversation With Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould
“It became blatantly clear that the Pac-12 brand really meant something,” Gould told me. "We could control our own destiny more if we rebuilt the Pac-12.”
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Hey Friends,
My third “Next Up” Podcast of the new season was a special one, featuring new Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould.
Gould became the first woman to lead a Power Five conference last February and was immediately tasked with plotting the conference’s survival.
Upon her hiring, Gould immediately went to work, creating a clear path forward for Oregon State and Washington State’s athletic programs.
Less than seven months after becoming commissioner, Gould played an integral role in adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, and Gonzaga (non-football member) to her league beginning in 2026.
The deals were put in place for “all conference sports” offered by each athletic department, with brand evaluation, geography, culture, and student-athlete welfare at the forefront of her negotiations.
Let’s dive into my in-depth conversation with Gould, ranging from her testimony on saving the “Conference of Champions” to what she prioritizes in ongoing partnerships.
1️⃣ Deliver a ‘Foxhole’ Mentality
When Gould was brought on to keep the Pac-12 afloat last year, one overarching goal defined her new commissioner duties: She wanted to provide unwavering hope to Oregon State and Washington State.
Without direction for the future of each university’s conference affiliation, Gould dove into the “foxhole” with leadership from both institutions.
“It was really great to go to those two campuses and talk to student-athletes and coaches, and give them a level of assurance that I was in the foxhole with them, advocating on their behalf and giving them hope,” Gould recounted. “It was critically important at that time.”
Following the Pac-12’s mass exodus beginning in July 2022, the conference’s brand began to temporarily crumble.
Part of Gould’s driving initiatives were, and still are, restoring the Pac-12’s prestige, which she’s worked to do with the conference’s looming additions.
“It became blatantly clear that the Pac-12 brand really meant something,” Gould told me. “… We could control our own destiny more if we rebuilt the Pac-12.”
On September 12, Gould proclaimed, “An exciting new era for the Pac-12 conference begins today,” after piloting a deal between the conference and four other West Coast universities.
Thanks to Gould’s guiding hand, the conference will welcome Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State in 2026. But she wasn’t done there.
After her first wave of additions, Gould has since gained commitments from Utah State and Gonzaga to bolster her league’s depth.
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2️⃣ Prepare To Be Unprepared
While Gould’s tenure heading the Pac-12 league office has already been overly rewarding for Oregon State, Washington State, and six incoming institutions, she didn’t complete the overhaul with the help of extensive preparation.
“There’s no road map for what we went through, right?” she explained. “There just isn’t. And, when you look at all the conference realignment that’s happened recently, even though it’s been going on for decades, there’s just no road map for it.”
Instead, Gould told me that her version of preparation comes in the form of foresight.
Forming valuable and meaningful relationships with your first-hand stakeholders is the name of the game in college athletics. Healthy relationships promote accentuated growth, further expansion, and heightened brand recognition over time.
“I think my 36 years in this industry helped in terms of existing relationships with presidents and existing relationships with athletic directors,” Gould mentioned. “It made those conversations behind the scenes a lot easier because there was already a level of trust and credibility.”
Previously, Gould served as the Pac-12’s deputy athletic director, where she saw the conference’s demise happen right in front of her eyes.
She told me that she’s had a “classroom” to observe over the years, which helps her avoid future mishaps of the same realm and expand the conference’s footprint into a thriving entity.
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3️⃣ Be Transformational, Not Transactional
When USC and UCLA first chose to ditch the Pac-12 in favor of the Big Ten, the two left for a primary reason — the conference’s media rights deal (or, lack thereof).
In each institution’s last year as Pac-12 members, each brought in roughly $21 revenue in the conference’s split media rights deal between ESPN and Fox.
Now, in the Big Ten, each athletic program will make nearly $100 million each in 2025.
So, how does Gould try to remain competitive in an era where cash is king in college athletics?
With a clean media rights slate, she wants to prioritize the student-athlete first by forming transformational partnerships, which would give her athletes unprecedented media access in the NIL era.
“We have an opportunity to build a league and be responsive to the modern-day student-athlete, not some legacy conference that is still doing things the way they’ve been done for 50 to 100 years,” Gould said. “… We are talking about not only how to deliver a great student-athlete experience, but student athletes now expect their value to be accelerated.”
Gould mentioned that the Pac-12 has a state-of-the-art production facility called “Pac-12 Enterprises,” which positions the conference in a favorable light to take advantage of untapped revenue streams.
Currently, the Pac-12 has yet to sign a media rights deal ahead of the 2025 football campaign. Gould and her team have partnered with Octagon, an agency that is currently consulting the league on best revenue-maximization practices moving forward.
“There’s a lot of interest in the marketplace, and potential media rights partners really see the value in the legacy of the Pac-12 brand,” Gould said. “Our metrics have been really strong… I think potential media rights partners see it as a valuable product. We have had a lot of interest.”
Check out my entire conversation with Gould here to learn more about the Pac-12’s exciting future.
If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by email at adam@brenemanmedia.com.
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Shoutout to Connor Krause for helping to write this newsletter and putting it together!
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