Pac-12 legal fight: In sworn statement in Comcast case, Kliavkoff admitted USC and UCLA had been removed from Pac-12 board

In a court filing last month in the fight for control of the Pac-12, commissioner George Kliavkoff indicated he had no position on the composition of the conference’s governing board. Whether board seats should be limited to the two remaining schools, Washington State and Oregon State, or available to the 10 outgoing members, as well, was an issue for the universities to settle, Kliavkoff stated in his court declaration.

But that’s not what he said this summer in a different legal entanglement.

Weeks before the Pac-12’s collapse, Kliavkoff issued a sworn statement to San Francisco Superior Court in which he stated that UCLA and USC had, in fact, already relinquished their board positions after announcing they would be joining the Big Ten.

The statement, unearthed Wednesday evening by the Hotline, is one of dozens of filings in a lawsuit brought by two former Pac-12 executives who were terminated for their roles in the Comcast overpayment scandal.

In the first section of his declaration to the court, which was filed July 12, Kliavkoff states his job title and responsibilities:

“I am the Commissioner for Defendant Pac-12 Conference and have held this position since July 1, 2021. I report to the Pac-12 Conference Board of Directors, comprised of the Chancellor or President of each member institution.“

The second sentence is accompanied by the following annotation:

“The University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California, are no longer among the member institutions represented on the Board of Directors.”

The declaration is nine pages long and concludes, “I declare under penalty of perjury pursuant to the laws of the United States of America and the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct.”

It is signed by Kliavkoff.

A source called the development potentially “significant” in the lawsuit brought by Washington State and Oregon State against the conference over control of the governing board.

It shows Kliavkoff, under penalty of perjury, acknowledging that announced departures to other conferences trigger removal from the Pac-12’s board — exactly the point Washington State and Oregon State are arguing in their lawsuit.

The two schools left behind in the realignment game contend the 10 outbound members gave what conference bylaws call “notice of withdrawal” upon announcing their moves to new leagues.

As a result, the Cougars and Beavers believe they should be the only remaining members of the board. The lawsuit filed Sept. 11 against the Pac-12 attempts to gain judicial clarity on the matter.

The stakes are high. If Washington State and Oregon State control the board, they control the Pac-12’s assets, including NCAA Tournament revenue worth tens of millions of dollars over time.

The money could be used to fund their athletic departments or rebuild the conference (with Mountain West teams) after the 10 universities depart next summer.

A temporary restraining order issued Sept. 11 by Whitman County (Wash.) judge Gary Libey prevents the Pac-12 board from meeting until the makeup of the governing body can be determined. Libey scheduled a hearing on the matter for Nov. 14.

Additionally, the two sides (the ‘Pac-2’ and the ‘Pac-10’) agreed to enter mediation and began talks earlier this month.

Kliavkoff’s sworn statement in the Comcast case came in the middle of July, two weeks before Colorado announced its departure for the Big 12 and three weeks before five additional schools agreed to leave.

At that point, USC president Carol Folt and UCLA chancellor Gene Block had long since been removed from the board of directors. The Pac-12 took that significant step in the summer of 2022, after the L.A. schools accepted Big Ten invitations.

The conference used the same policy with Colorado on July 27, after chancellor Phil DiStefano informed Kliavkoff via text message that the Buffaloes would be joining the Big 12.

The next day, Pac-12 general counsel Scott Petersmeyer sent Colorado’s legal officer a letter that included the following:

“Chancellor DiStefano provided CU’s written notice of withdrawal to Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff on July 27, 2023. Under Section CB 2-3 of the Pac-12’s Constitution and Bylaws, Chancellor DiStefano and CU’s representation on the Pac-12’s Board of Directors automatically ceases effective immediately, and CU no longer has the right to vote on any matter before the Board.”

A week later, Oregon and Washington left for the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State and Utah bolted for the Big 12; and the conference collapsed. Only Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State remained.

In early September, the Bay Area schools accepted invitations from the ACC, leaving just the Beavers and Cougars.

Kliavkoff then attempted to call a meeting of all the presidents and chancellors, including those representing USC and UCLA — this, despite his sworn statement two months earlier that the L.A. school had been removed from the board.

Washington State president Kirk Schulz and Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy disputed the notion that the outbound schools continued to hold board seats.

They argued that public announcements of new conference affiliations by the outbound 10 constituted a “notice of withdrawal” that triggered removal from the board.

But in a letter to Schulz and Murthy before they filed the Sept. 11 lawsuit, Kliavkoff rejected the conclusion that the 10 schools had relinquished their board positions:

“Your suggestion that ten of the Conference’s 12 members have ‘withdrawn’ from the Conference within the meaning of the Bylaws is mistaken. Not one member school has signaled any intention — or actually attempted — to leave Conference play at any time prior to the end of the current fiscal year on July 31, 2024, or to take back and exploit their media rights.

“We simply cannot accept the suggestion that only two members. — Oregon State University (OSU) and Washington State University (WSU) — now have the right to determine by themselves all issues affecting the Conference, and determine the course of all revenue coming into the Conference, to the exclusion of the other ten member schools.”

Three days later, the Beavers and Cougars responded with legal action.

In his declaration to the Whitman County Court, Kliavkoff said:

“Neither the Conference nor I have a position with respect to the proper composition of the Pac-12 Board. This is fundamentally a dispute among members.”

That statement seemingly stakes out a different position on the board makeup than Kliavkoff offered in July, under penalty of perjury.

The lawsuit in the Comcast case brought by former Pac-12 CFO Brent Willman and former Pac-12 Networks president Mark Shuken is ongoing.

The Pac-12 and Kliavkoff declined to comment.

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