Scholz instead noted that the annual distribution would $$average$$ $$50$ million in revenue over a $10-$year period. Without a linear option, the Pac$-12$ simply couldn$$t match that. Said one well$-$placed conference source: $$Fox obviously screwed us and I would argue that after that initial ESPN offer in the fall that ESPN was no friend.$$ George Kliavkoff lost credibility with his board and the public during the last $10$ months. The commissioner overpromised and under$-$delivered. It helps explain why a few Pac$-12$ presidents and chancellors randomly popped up$,$ gave conflicting public interviews, and offered a series of timelines on when they expected the media deal to get done. I spoke with several members of the Pac$-12$ CEO Group and a multitude of industry sources over the last year. I was repeatedly told the board was galvanized, had solidarity, and remained confident it would get a satisfactory deal. When Oregon State$$s new president, Jaythi Murthy, gave me a $27-$minute radio interview in February, she echoed Kliavkoff$$s enthusiasm. It almost exactly matched what several other members of the Pac$-12$ CEO Group were also saying. $$We are together on this,$$ Murthy told me$.$We$$ve got confidence in the future of the Pac$-12$ and we know things are going to be good.$$ I later found out that the Pac$-12$ commissioner had spent $45$ minutes briefing OSU$$s president shortly before our interview. Said one source: $$We waited and waited and they didn$$t deliver. Even Colorado waited until almost the bitter end.$$ The lack of credibility was a killer down the stretch for the Pac$-12$ leaders. The commissioner was faced with selling a lessthan$-$ ideal Apple deal to a room that was annoyed with being strung along. Kliavkoff wasn$$t just asking his members to bet on themselves. The commissioner was doing it without the trust of his board. $$I like George a lot as a person,$$ one person said, $$but we were told things that didn$$t come true time and time again.$$ Ex$-$commissioner Larry Scott played a key role in the demise of the Pac$-12.$ His leadership put the conference on the path to destruction a decade ago. Scott doesn$$t get a pass. But as awful as he was I$$ve wondered if Scott would have let the conference die. Would he have lost USC and UCLA to the Big Ten? Would he have managed his board better? Scott loathed traveling to Pullman for football games. He$$d leave Martin Stadium after halftime on his chartered flight and be home in the Bay Area by the end of the game. But the ex$-$commissioner loved Los Angeles where he could stay at five$-$star hotels and dine in fine restaurants. Scott spent far more time in Southern California. One of his sons, in fact, attended USC. Scott was also a deft self preservationist. The Harvard$-$educated tennis player didn$$t know much about football. Lack of linear exposure, among other things, for schools, boards, coaches and athletes killed the Apple Deal for Pac$-12.$ Design and appraise various strategic options for the Big$-12$ beyond $2030$