Rick George Press Conference Transcript

Colorado Athletic Director Rick George spoke with the media Tuesday afternoon after the Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten announced a historic alliance that will bring 41 world-class institutions together on a collaborative approach to the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling. The alliance was unanimously supported by the presidents, chancellors and athletics directors at all 41 institutions and will be guided in all cases by a commitment to, and prioritization of, supporting student-athlete well-being, academic and athletic opportunities, experiences and diverse educational programming. The three conferences are grounded in their support of broad-based athletic programs, the collegiate model and opportunities for student-athletes as part of the educational missions of the institutions.

Below is the transcript of George's press conference.

First I appreciate everybody being here, those of you on the phone on Zoom. I'm excited about this announcement and I first want to thank our presidents and chancellors in the three conferences, my colleagues in the ACC and the Big Ten and, of course, my peers in the in the Pac-12. I am excited about what this will do. Through collaboration, we believe that we can positively influence the future evolution of college athletics.

We can provide additional support and experiences for our student-athletes. This will create an increased excitement for our alumni and fans from coast to coast. As part of this alliance we are committed to leading the nation in our supporting our student athletes academically, athletically, health and wellness safety.

All the areas that impact our student athletes, we want to lead the nation in those areas. Our student athletes will be our primary focus as we move forward with this alignment and I'm excited about how it fits what we do at the University of Colorado.

The last thing that I'll say is there's a lot going on in our industry. I think everybody knows that, and I think this alliance allows us to collaborate on these issues and brings stability to college athletics, and the collegiate model so we're excited about it. It's going to be interesting as we move forward.

On His Conversation With Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff Monday

Well, we had our we had our last discussion last night, with all the athletic directors to talk about what we were to talk about today and I think the key thing for us is the instability of collegiate athletics today is something that is really important for us and what we wanted to address in this alignment.

There's a lot going on, from the NCAA governance structure to the name image and likeness, the Alston Case, all these different things that are going in intercollegiate athletics, and we felt really strongly about bringing some stability to protecting the collegiate model and working together on the key issues that are in our industry today.

On Skepticism About It Being A Handshake Agreement

Well, let me say this: it is not a joke. It is serious. It is important, and I think the Commissioners laid that out really well on their thought process. We do not need a contract if you trust the people that you are working with, and we certainly do. When you have all 41 Athletic Directors, all 41 Presidents, all three of the Conference Commissioners, you know their word is important. We are going to work together with both of those conferences. We think it's important for us to come together and collaborate to improve on the collegiate model and to bring some stability to our industry and so having a contract, I'm not concerned about that. I know the people in the room that I sit in with the athletic directors; I think our three Commissioners have worked very hard together. We have a lot of confidence in what we can do collectively as a group, moving forward.

On How The Alliance Will Benefit Student-Athletes

I think it is going to bring visit visibility to our department and our university. Playing from the East Coast to the West Coast, I think it is going to provide more eyeballs on opportunities for Heisman Trophies and other things, the national awards. I think that's going to be really important and it's going to bring some excitement to our fan base, our alumni around the country. There are so many positives with this alignment and what it will look like. I think you can create some multi-team events in different areas whether it's men's or women's basketball, or if it's soccer or cross country, you can envision a meet that has just the three conferences. We're not just scheduling with those two conferences, we're still going to have scheduling opportunities in all of our sports for all the conferences, just like we do today. But what this will do, it might allow us to have some early season, really marquee events that are going to be marketable. We're going to be watched all across the country and again playing from coast to coast. Being in all four time zones in this country will be important for us. It will give us some visibility, and I think, from a student-athlete perspective, it's going to provide some experiences that they may not have just in this conference and some of the non-conference games that we've been able to schedule. I think there's real opportunity for all of the teams in these three leagues to work together and really make this a meaningful experience for all of our alumni and fans around the country.

On Student-Athlete Mental & Physical Well-Being

I would say that I think the 41 institutions in this alliance are really like-minded, that they are focused on the same things. The student-athlete perspective is going to be important and we've got so many research universities in this alliance that we can rely on some of that research that they have out there that can bring us all together to make better improvements for our student-athletes moving forward in the health and wellness areas and all the areas that touch our student athletes from that regard.

On Potential College Football Playoff Expansion

In terms of this alliance, it will be important to figure out what kind our unified stance is on the College Football Playoff going forward. I have to put this disclaimer in, I'm speaking as the athletic director at the University of Colorado. I also serve on the CFP selection committee, so these are my thoughts, not the CFP selection thoughts, but I do think that expansion is good. What the right number is I'm not totally sure on yet and I don't have a final opinion on that. As we look at all of the information I think there's always been a process that was going to take place when they made the announcement that they would look at more data that would maybe change where that direction is moving forward. So there's still a lot of time to do that. I think there's a meeting at the end of September that they'll come together and take everybody's input and really look at that and see if that's definitely the direction we want to go, or if there's some modifications to that.

On If Current Schedules Will Be Affected

At this point, no. If you look at our schedule, I think, through 2026 we have a Big Ten and ACC games during that time period so that's beneficial to us. And yes, we are scheduled out through 2032 or something like that. But certainly we'll look at what we're doing in the conference. Is eight or nine games the right number? We haven't come to any conclusion on that yet, but as we look through this and as we start to really tackle the scheduling opportunities moving forward we'll look at all of those different factors.

On If The Pac-12 Should Look At Eight vs. Nine League Games

We've been very comfortable with a nine game schedule. Could we get comfortable with an eight-game schedule and adding another opponent in the future? We can get comfortable with that, too. Collectively, as an AD group and our coaches and our Conference offices, we will work together on what we think is best for us and for our student-athletes moving forward. So I don't have that answer you yet but we'll look at all those different options to make sure that when we do finalize what our scheduling will look like in the future we'll look at all those factors.

On If Certain Opponents Will Be On Future Schedules

It's too early for us to have those discussions on who do we play more often than now. But we certainly like our tradition and rivalry that we have (with Nebraska) and I think what this alliance will do is, one, we will protect those historic rivalries, but at the same time, will probably create some rivalries as we move forward. I think it's a an incredible opportunity for us to really put some great marquee games out there every year.

On Paul Finebaum's Comments That This Alliance Is Just To Spite The SEC

What's my response to that? My response to that is that's not accurate. I appreciate and respect his comments on it, but this is about what's best for the collegiate model. it's about what's best for our conference and what's best for the University of Colorado. That's where our focus is and we think that this alliance will help bring some stability to the collegiate model. As I said, there's a lot on our plate. Working collaboratively together with them and our peers at the SEC and the Big 12 is important but we felt like this was the right move at this point in time for us to address a lot of the issues that we have in our industry today.

On What's Happening In The Industry

There are a lot of big things in our industry right now. We talked about the name, image, and likeness. There's the new governance structure that the NCAA is contemplating and the landscape is ever-changing. Having more people in the room that you can have conversations with and collaborate with to help make intercollegiate athletics better is important. There has been a lot of turmoil or turbulence in in our model. Bringing this group together really helps stabilize that and puts a strong voice out there about the direction of where intercollegiate athletics is going to go.

Colorado University Athletics

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