Tom Hansen is full of excuses

by jtlight on Jun 25, 2008 7:59 AM PDT Comment 7 comments

If you haven't heard it, Tom Hansen was interviewed on KFXX on June 11th, though I hadn't heard this til just recently. There are so many things that are wrong with what he says, and I covered it a lot in the comments of this fanpost, and Dave covered it as well in his post.

Almost all of us have problems with the direction of the conference. Bad TV contracts, bad bowl games, unwillingness to look to the future, etc. Hansen defends it all, which is not shocking.

But to me, the worst sin committed by Hansen is that he has shirked his responsibilities. From this interview, it is clear he views his job as having little power, that he merely does the will of the university Presidents. I think this is just plain wrong.

Hansen is the head of the Pac-10. While he is accountable to some, he is not a mere figurehead. His job is to direct the Pac-10 conference and bring the university Presidents on board. His job is to come up with ideas and sell them to the universities. His job is to innovate and then sell these ideas to the universities.

Unfortunately, this has not happened. Instead, the Pac-10 rolls on, doing nothing. There has been no innovation, only stagnation. And Hansen shirks this, blaming the job description. Well this hasn't stopped other conference commissioners (I'm looking at you Delany). University Presidents have the #1 interest for their university. Unfortunately, this can also make them short-sighted. The relationship between the university and conference should be give and take. But this has not happened.

Instead, we have a poor vision for the conference, all lame excuses.

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very well said

that’s a great way to sum things up – it’s so frustrating seeing hansen sitting around doing nothing and waiting to move on things… i really hope they can bring in a guy with some vision and understanding of the progress the conference needs to make on the national scale.

i listened to the interview and as a transplanted oregonian living in dc, i totally understand the point he was trying to make with regard to the national time slots for games. the games are always on late out here and most of my co-workers and friends in the area don’t even pay attention to the conference because the games are never on at reasonable times. out of sight, out of mind.

but as commisioner you can’t just accept that and say “well we wouldn’t get good national spots anyway” he should fight for the conference and push espn and other networks to give the pac 10 better spots. he’s clearly overlooking the fact that teams like ucla in basketball (with their recent final four runs) and usc in football (bcs bowl success) have been so prominent in recent years that (for better or worse) they have given the conference legitimate leverage and interest on a national scale. it’s his duty as commissioner to take the successes of those teams and go to espn and other national outlets and fight for better coverage! it’s an outrage that he’s willing to just sit back and do nothing and live with the lame excuse of “well espn wouldn’t give us a good rotation of timespots so we’re happy with fox sports” – this is not the WAC or MAC, its the freakin Pac 10, so called “conference of champions” so start acting like it and play that freakin card!

alright, i’m done venting – but i’m a diehard ducks fan/alum who has found it so frustrating trying to keep up with the school and conference out here on the east cost, having to deal with the constant “east coast bias” that unfortunately is fueled by the laziness of our commissioner and the lack of vision to push exposure of his conference outside of the pacific and mountain time zones.

thank god for blogs like this that call out the guy – keep it up guys!

by UVAduck on Jun 26, 2008 6:07 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Pigskin Podcast

JTLight:

With some colleagues, I run a football blog.podcast site, www.pigskinpodcast.com.

We’re looking for a writer to come on and discuss the Pac 10 with us this weekend. (You can find a sample college conference preview here: http://www.pigskinpodcast.com/2008/06/25_big_12_preview_with_rob_cas.php)

If you’re interested, please drop me an e-mail at jhammond@pigskinpodcast.com.

Thanks!

—Joel Hammond
PigskinPodcast.com

by JoelHammond on Jun 26, 2008 7:25 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Jared, take me with you!

I could be like your mini-me!

by qrsouther on Jun 26, 2008 8:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also, rec'd for recognizing a respected poster here.

Congrats Jared.

by qrsouther on Jun 26, 2008 8:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

nba draft loves pac 10

just to follow-up my previous rant, you guys probably saw the nba was pac 10 heavy in the first round last night…

it’s a good thing the conference has great national coverage of basketball huh?

at least the nba realizes the skill in the pac 10… to bad the rest of the country doesn’t get to see it very often on national broadcasts. thanks tom, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

by UVAduck on Jun 27, 2008 6:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

What...

The occasional Sunday afternoon Fox Sports broadcast doesn’t do it for you?

If that’s not exposure, I don’t know what is!

by jtlight on Jun 27, 2008 6:59 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hope you're being sarcastic JT

I will admit i think the basketball has slightly better coverage then the football for pac-10, but still we are constantly getting shafted in the national rankings. There was an article last fall on espn.com (I wish i could find the link, sorry) that showed what football teams and conferences were the most underrated when comparing where the teams were initially ranked and where they ended up because of records in the last 10 or so years. Of the teams the top 3 were: 1.) Wash St. (Because of the early 2000’s, not so much now of course) 2.) Boise St. (Because of their late dominance) and of course 3.) Oregon (Which i bet you would be pretty high if someone did a all-time list). And the most underrated conference was Pac-10 of course by a pretty big margin. (guess who was the most overrated conference: Why Big 10 of course!). I think that proves the nation constantly doubts us over here on the west because we play past their bed times and are usually stuck to playing on FoxSports, which I have a feeling gets a significantly less amount of viewers then espn, cbs, nbc & abc.

by Trail Ducker on Jun 30, 2008 11:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs