Would we be in Pac 12 without Larry Scott?

[Yergensen]

Let me say up front, I wanted Larry Scott removed years ago.  IMO he has done significant damage to the conference to gross personal benefit.

The irony is he helped and drove conference expansion and our inclusion in that expansion.  If we were to speculate, were there other forces at work then or after that would have promoted us to P5 or would we not have made it without Larry?

[jamarcus24]

This story has been told.  Utah had been a candidate for a long time before Larry Scott entered the picture.  While he does deserve credit for seeing the landscape back in 2010 he royally screwed the conference not long after by failing to get distribution for the Pac-12 Network across all accessible TV platforms.

 

So thanks for the big break, Larry.  Your departure is long overdue.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Without Scott, I don’t think we would be.  Utah had long promoted itself to that league, but then-Commissioner Thomas Hansen consistently rejected expansion, as he felt that “tradition” was too important.  The Arizona schools are lucky Hansen didn’t arrive until a few years after their admission.

And for what it’s worth, Hansen wasn’t the only one worried about their “tradition”.  The California schools were as well.  In fact, USC and UCLA were the most adamant of all the schools in that league to not expand.  Larry Scott was the one who’d convinced them that adding Utah and Colorado would be accretive to the league.  And even then, they demanded assurances that no other school was being offered, which later turned out to be a non-starter anyway, as with the addition of UU and CU, the share of every school in the league turned out to be worth more than USC’s and UCLA’s minimum assurances.

It’s been awfully trendy to attack Scott, as he’d made a LOT of mistakes.  As do we all.  So while I’m not saying we should have kept him on for our next media negotiations, I AM saying that Ute nation owes him an enormous debt of gratitude.  So much so that I believe now that he’s gone, let’s not go and trample on his grave.  Let’s give him our appreciation, and wish him well.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I don’t think it’s fair to classify what Larry Scott did as simple mistakes (the kind we all make). Some of the things he did go beyond mere mistakes and represent a serious failure of leadership and even abuse of his position.

I lead an organization and I make plenty of mistakes, errors in judgment, etc. But I’ve never spent company money to the tune of $7500 per night on a 3500 square foot Vegas hotel room while traveling on business. That’s not a mistake – that’s corruption. That’s pure avarice and greed.

I’m grateful that Larry helped get Utah into the conference, but beyond that he’s been an unmitigated disaster. And it goes beyond poor leadership and bad judgment.

[Utesbyfive]

No, probably not. Thanks For that Larry, but it doesn’t mean we should overlook years of failure and possibly malfeasance since then.

[Charlie]

I agree, it was wonderful he led the charge for Pac expansion.  However, he was quite selfish the way he was so extravigant.  Now, with the Pac in Cali, will they be able to have in person interviews or will this be figured out with zoom calls?  Could we move the conference office to Las Vegas and set a reasonable budget?

[Duhwayne]

I can’t say whether having Larry Scott involved was decisive, but I can say that having Chris Hill and Michael Young involved was decisive.

Much love to them.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Not Michael Young!  Dr. Hill?  Yes.  Michael Young?  Hell no!  During the most critical part of the Pac-10’s expansion — the part where they were just about to decide who gets invited…..

…..Michael Young took his wife on vacation!

Dr. Hill had one scheduled too, but he pushed it back, because now (re: then) was NOT the time for it.  Dr. Hill knew he had to be Johnny-on-the-spot to ensure Utah got in.

We can thank Dr. Hill.  But not Michael Young.  That assclown nearly blew it for us!

[Utah5410]

Jon Wilner said it best. When Larry was hired he was exactly what the pac needed. As the world changed and the conference changed he got worse and worse. So glad he’s gone.