There might not be a high-level commissioner in sports hated with more vigor than college football fans hated former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott.
Scott led the conference from 2009 until his resignation in June of 2021. While he did lead the conference in adding the Colorado Buffalos and Utah Utes in 2011, helped create the Pac-12 Championship Game, and led the creation of the Pac-12 Networks, many still view his stint as commissioner as a failure and blame him the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins ultimately leaving the conference.
During Scott’s time as commissioner, the Pac-12 failed in expansion efforts that could have brought schools like the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, or Texas A&M Aggies to the conference. And while he did help create the Pac-12 Network and broker what was a large television contract at the time, both the Big Ten and SEC now have more successful and widely-disseminated networks and broadcast deals worth significantly more money. Meanwhile, he was spending way too much money on unnecessary headquarters and hotel suites.
So with that in mind, the Arizona State Sun Devils sports podcast Speak of the Devils had a very simple prompt for college football fans: “Name someone who is/was better at their job than Larry Scott was as Pac-12 commissioner.”
And of course, the college football world had some witty responses, comparing Scott to Wile E. Coyote from the Looney Tunes, the Washington Generals, and more.
Scott has not been leading the Pac-12 for over a year but time doesn’t seem to have cooled fans’ hatred even a little bit.
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