New Pac-12 commissioner is taking on a daunting task

Even just two years ago, becoming the commissioner of the Pac-12 would have been deemed a dream job. And frankly, it still might be that for new Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould, who will be officially promoted on Friday from her role as deputy commissioner to replace George Kliavkoff. 

On the resume, Gould is still a Power Five conference commissioner, and the first woman to serve in such a capacity at that. It's an accomplishment, to be sure.

At the same time, Gould entered more than a dumpster fire from Kliavkoff.

What was once the most historic conference in college sports is now literally just a shell of itself, with only Oregon State and Washington State remaining in 2024.

Gould has her work cut out for her if she wants to rebuild this once proud conference, but at the very least, she is coming into this with the right mindset.

Growth is incredibly important, but in the here and now, it's all about taking care of the student-athletes at Oregon State and Washington State.

“They need a leader prepared to fight for them, a leader prepared to fight on their behalf,” Gould said on Thursday, according to On3. “And I want to be that leader. I was really inspired and convicted and motivated to really come in and say, ‘Look at the programs on those two campuses and what they have done.’ … We have programs on these two campuses that compete at the highest level, and I wanted to be the leader that fought on behalf of those student-athletes and their future.”

The likes of USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington and the others aren't going to come walking back through that door, but that doesn't mean the Pac-12 has to shutter up. 

Both OSU and WSU have a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West Conference and there are several decent football programs already in place there. That list would include San Jose State, Boise State, Air Force, Hawaii and Nevada.

The Pac-12 could reverse merge with the MWC, which means that the Mountain West would essentially be re-branded as the Pac-12 with Oregon State and Washington State as the flagships. Gould could also try to pick off programs like Boise State to rebuild the Pac-12 from the ground up. That's a bit more of a cutthroat way of doing it, but that's life in the realignment-obsessed space in college football.

However she chooses to do it, Gould without a doubt has a daunting task ahead of her.