Pete Thamel shares what hiring of Teresa Gould means for Pac-12's future

The Pac-12 recently hired Teresa Gould to be the conference’s new commissioner, replacing George Kliavkoff. It’s a move that comes at a difficult time for the conference, with every school except Washington State and Oregon State set to depart.

Despite the state of the Pac-12, this is a move that ESPN reporter Pete Thamel explained means that the conference is still looking forward.

“To me, naming a commissioner, giving her a multi-year contract, and sort of casting things forward, hints that the Pac-12 does not want to go away,” Pete Thamel said on The College GameDay Podcast. “There’s obviously been rumblings of how or maybe when buyouts allow it, they could take the best of the Mountain West, poach a few other schools, and try to compete with the AAC for that fifth league.”

The Pac-12 and the Mountain West do currently have a scheduling agreement in place. Basically, in 2024, all Mountain West teams will play seven conference games and one game against Oregon State or Washington State. That way, the remaining Pac-12 schools can fill gaps in their schedule.

The College Football Playoff, meanwhile, recently adjusted its 12-team format to only include the top five ranked conference champions automatically making the Playoff. That means that there is, likely, going to be one less spot available to the Group of Five conferences. Moving forward, the Pac-12 is going to be competing with those conferences for that final spot.

“Now, this is all speculative. This hasn’t gone down the road of it. But, if you noticed, the basketball in those two schools is in the WCC. It’s not in the Mountain West. So, to me, that’s always hinted at a little bit of a divide going forward. So, Oregon State and Washington State, with that great Pac-12 brand, you can’t argue with the brand, try to recast themselves in the future, and I think by putting a very good commissioner in place to push forward, that’s going to be alive for a while,” Thamel said.

“I don’t think you put someone in that role to just play out the string. I think you have a bigger plan moving forward and I think that’s what will potentially emerge in the next couple years of what will that look like. That move, to me, says they’re not content to just fade away.”

Pac-12 officially announces Teresa Gould as conference commissioner

The Pac-12 made the official announcement that Teresa Gould would be made the conference’s next commissioner on Monday, February 19th. Washington State University President and chair of the Pac-12 Board of Directors Kirk Schulz shared the news in a statement.

“Teresa’s deep knowledge of collegiate athletics and unwavering commitment to student-athletes makes her uniquely qualified to help guide the Pac-12 Conference during this period of unprecedented change in college sports,” Schulz said.

“As the first female commissioner of an Autonomy Five conference, Teresa will be able to bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to the table as the industry works to find its way through this shifting landscape. We look forward to her leadership as we write the next chapter in the Pac-12’s storied history.”