Kliavkoff praises USC...

George Kliavkoff praises USC for how it handled Clay Helton firing

Zack Pearson

George Kliavkoff praises USC for how it handled Clay Helton firing (msn.com)

George Kliavkoff knows that in 2021, USC dramatically improved its football program and its national brand, which is essential to restoring the fortunes of the Pac-12 in college football.

Kliavkoff’s job has become exponentially more manageable due to Mike Bohn’s work. Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 are now in a much stronger position when football media rights negotiations come around in a few years. USC improving its brand is a cornerstone component of Pac-12 success, but the hire of Lincoln Riley also means that other Pac-12 schools have to raise their standards to keep up with the Trojans. The domino effect should be highly positive, and Kliavkoff knows it.

This is why he had absolutely no problem with USC sacking Clay Helton two weeks into the season, as he explained to the Los Angeles Times.

“I think it was exceptionally well executed by President [Carol] Folt and by Mike Bohn in the way they handled that,” Kliavkoff said. “I personally don’t love the idea of creating a coaching carousel in the middle of the season, but I think we have rules in place today that make that inevitable, right? You have a system where we’ve moved up the early signing period to be before most of the bowl games, so you have this incentive to have a new coach in place before the end of the season. I think about how tragic it would have been if one game went differently and instead of being No. 5 Notre Dame would have been in the CFP and the coach that got them there had already committed to move. That’s not good for the student-athletes. I don’t blame the coach or his agent for doing that; we’ve created a system where schools had to get coaches in sooner. But, given the current system, I think nobody in the country did a better job of running a process that resulted in a great outcome than USC this year.”