San Diego State President and Athletic Director announce joining Pac-12 | Full Press Conference

Good morning, Fancy meeting all of you here. Uh We'll kick off the president will make a statement, I'll make a statement and then we will open it up to questions. Well, first of all, I want to say this is an incredibly exciting day for San Diego State. It's a combination of I think a journey that we've had for a number of years. Meaning if you look at all of our metrics, our academic, our research metrics, the applications that have been growing by leaps and bounds and now something that really holds a promise for our student athletes joining the PAC 12 and bringing our student athletes the opportunities they justly deserve. You know, I want to take just a moment to thank um the leadership of the PAC 12, also my colleagues in the other three co uh universities. Um uh as you can imagine, we worked day and night and to get to this point to announce this is a real uh testament to what we can do and what we think we can do without a doubt, we know this PAC 12 will be remarkable. It will be a leader in many different ways. And but more importantly, it will put student athletes first. Um Secondly, I, I want to thank uh the Mountain West Conference uh because we were founding members, San Die Jose was a founding member of the Mountain West Conference. And for many years, we have worked with them and we're going to continue to work with them until 2026. So this is an exciting time. Um I wanna thank everyone involved. I wanna uh thank all of the athletics directors, um the council, everybody who helped this happen. I want to personally um do a shout out for JD who has been a valuable, valuable leader for this campus and look forward to the future. So I want to now turn into JD. Oh, thank you, Adela. Um Wow, I wasn't expecting this. Um Yeah, I'm thrilled for San Diego State, our fans, our alumni, our donors, what, you know, we, we, we've worked hard for this and we have invested in San Diego State. Our institution has invested, I've, you know, I've told donors forever. Uh you know, the academic institution has to improve as much as the athletic institution and credit to President de La Torre um credit to the previous presidents, you know, Provosts Deans faculties, our students, the academic institutions, amazing the athletic department over the last, you know, 1215 years, Jim Stir's leadership. I was fortunate to work with Jim uh all that we've accomplished. I mean, we are, we have the best combined football and men's basketball record in division one. Uh So, I'm just, I'm so happy. I'm so proud for our fan base, our alumni, our donors that we have this opportunity to go into the PAC 12 to create this new PAC 12 and the opportunities that it's that it's gonna provide us. Um You know, great thanks to uh the president, President de La Torre did an amazing job through all of this, working with the other presidents, the PAC 12 helping make this happen. She's been a rock star through all of this. This hasn't just been the last couple of weeks. This has obviously been over a number of years. She's been amazing. Uh the chancellor and the system, the CS U system for their support through this, uh the PAC 12, they've been through a lot over the last, you know, year. I mean, we, I was talking with Teresa Gould about it last night. August 4th was a really hard date for us, imagine what it was for them. So they have Washington State, Oregon State. Uh It's been great to work with them and the PAC 12 and we're excited about what this opportunity is going to be going forward with us. Uh My other three colleagues at Boise State, uh Colorado State and Fresno State coming together and working to make this um a great opportunity for us. Uh And you know, I'm again, so excited for our staff our coaches, our student athletes, all the work that they've done to help us get here. Uh, and then, you know, as President de La Torre mentioned, we have two years left in the Mountain West conference and we play for Mountain West Conference championships and we're gonna do that over the next two years. We've had great success in the conference. We're all time leader in championships. We've been the leader of the last three years. You look at the sec success across all of our programs. This isn't just a football, men's basketball move. This is because of the success of all of our programs that we've had in the Mountain West level at the NCAA level. So we are thrilled for this opportunity. We're thrilled for the opportunity to be, to continue being great members of the Mountain West conference over the next two years and then during that time helping to move the PAC 12 forward. So that when we walk in the door, July 1 2026 we're ready to go and compete at a national level. Thank you. Any questions, please raise your hand. The mic uh JD a couple of financial questions and I have a question for the president. Uh is the PAC 12 teams or the conference gonna help you pay any of the exit fee from the Mountain West? We're working through the, the final exact details, but there will be some assistance. Uh You know whether that be the ability to take out loans down the road based on the revenues coming in, um, some revenues that they have at this point. Um, but yes, there will, you know, that's still all to be worked out, but there will be some, yes. Are you, do you have to leave behind NCAA units that you got from basketball with the Mountain West or do you still get that payment over this n Cooper years? Those units stay with the Mountain West, those units stay with the Mountain West. And President, is there any ache leaving this thing since you've been the flagship for 26 years? Any ache for the people left behind like Wyoming and Air Force? And why did it wind up? Only four rather than a bigger number? Thank you. Well, the first question is um all of my colleagues in the Mountain West are valuable and all of them. Uh I'm, we are, we're going to be working with them for the next uh two years. So those relationships uh those friendships will stay. Um And I do think within the context of other arenas, we'll continue to work together. So, um from my point of view, I will continue to work um in different areas where we can collaborate. Um On the second question, I, I bet, you know, in which was in reference to the um the, well, you know, I have to say I have had such a great experience with the Mountain West. That, yes, I will say that on a personal level, there are people who I've really grown with and in particular, I, you know, I will say, uh, individuals who started out seven years ago when I just came in as a president. It's almost seven years that I've been here. Um, I have some very deep relationships but I'm the type of person that keeps those bridges always open. And so I know that we will continue to have great conversations and opportunities in the future. Jdii, I think there are people who don't understand the intricacies of everything that's happening with this, that they see that these are two of the PAC 12 teams that were left behind when other teams left and even those two teams have tried to leave it, you know, for other affiliations and conferences and four of the six teams. Now, at least at this point are Mountain West teams, which is, you know, the current conference that you're in, where are the opportunities and more specifics? And why is this a better situation moving forward? Is it all based on potential and opportunity down the road? And what, what do those opportunities look like in your mind? You know, I think the the key to this is, you know, constantly improving yourself. Um We always want to not just look at the short term but what is going to be, you know, the potential long term gain. Uh and we think this move is going to give us the best opportunity as you look at revenue generation, as you look at, you know, college football playoff, as you look at NCAA, basketball, all the other sports. Um, you know, I think something that kind of gets lost with people, the PAC 12 enterprises, the network is a massive asset that's sitting there. Um That was quite frankly, you know, a big reason why we considered this as you look at the opportunities, one, what you can do on campus with that, but two the revenue streams that it can potentially generate down the road. So we look at this as you know that next step forward. Um it may not be the step that we looked at last year, but this is definitely a step forward for San Diego President to could you um explain, you said that this is part of the grand vision that you have for the university. What part does athletics play for you? Um And this move in particular for the entire university. So athletics is the front door for any institution. And if you look at any major public university, athletics is critical. Look at the University of Washington, you look at the University of Michigan, you can go on and on. Unequivocally when I came here about seven years ago, I saw this potential. I saw it not just in football and basketball, I saw it in uh women's swim and dive in golf and tennis in soccer and volleyball. I mean, I went to all of those games and still attend those games when I can. But what's really, really critical here is also the potential, how this is going to amplify, um, all of our activities. And in fact, just a quick story when we were at the national championships and I had to go to DC and I was meeting with some federal, large federal agencies. The first thing people said to me, congratulations and that was on the national championships. And that is what people need to understand. We received hundreds of millions of dollars of publicity as a result of the success of athletics, we had alumni, we have a half a million alumni that came from all over the world to go to Houston. We had close to 80,000 people at that game and indeed, I would argue almost half of them were Aztecs. So my point here is it is only fitting at this time for us to, to accept the mantle of where we need to be. We are a great institution. We are an exceptional institution and we are going to rise to the occasion to be the best in athletics. JD. You've been open about the emotions that happened the last time with the PAC 12 and it falling apart and how that took a couple of months for you to get over. Um Could you just walk us through that process? Again, deciding to get back to work and leading to this moment. Yeah, it's, uh, my wife's gonna laugh at me for getting emotional again. Um, yeah, you know, it took me a while, you know, August 4th 2023. That's, you know, that, that's seared into my brain as much as September 3rd 2022. And, you know, September 20 September 3 2022 would be seared for a different reason. Now, I'm just kidding. The heat sea, I'm sorry, I missed that. Um There we go. Thank you. Um You know, August 4th 2023 sitting in a hotel room in Canton, Ohio is Don Coryell, you know, Aztec legend, legend going into the NFL Hall of Fame. And, you know, just sitting there and nothing you could do except watch, you know, the former creation of the Pac 12 Implode and all the work again that we had done over time. Um It took a good six months to get over that and I don't think I realized that until, you know, we were beyond it. Um You know, just how hard that was. I mean, are, you know, a lot of people on our staff had worked, had worked so hard to kind of position us for that. So, you know, here we are with another opportunity and, you know, we're excited about this opportunity and how it's going to allow us to continue to grow our athletic department, to continue putting you know, world class opportunities in front of our student athletes is, you know, we work to give them athletic opportunities, academic opportunities. Our life skills program is amazing. You know, we, we like to say, we graduate great human beings and we graduated 100 and 14 of them last year. This is just that next step in that evolution. Um Obviously, college athletics is dynamic right now as a whole and we feel and, you know, the other athletic directors, we've had a lot of discussion, you know, I got to spend a lot of time with the other presidents through this process as well. Everyone feels like this is the appropriate place to be with the current evolution of college athletics. And we're excited about what it means for us. Hi, I have two questions. Uh First is to both of you, uh it's been reported since eight is a magic number as far as conference affiliation goes for the NCAA that the current six member institutions now in the PAC 12 would be looking to bring in two more. So to each of you athletically and institutionally, what would San Diego State prioritize for two potential new member institutions to also join the PAC 12? You know, I think, well, this is obviously a process that's been discussed a little bit at this point. But, you know, between data, the PAC 12 has between data um that the consulting firm has, you know, what we know, conversations, we're gonna look for the two best fits for athletics, academics who can be the most successful, who can invest in their programs and give us the best opportunity as a league to achieve greatness. And, and just to add yesterday, I had a conversation with Commissioner Teresa Gould regarding this and we both agreed and then I think this is a fairly, a universal sentiment that this is an opportunity to be a different type of conference. And again, putting students first in very real terms. I mean, when you think about the fact that um in many instances, decisions were made instantly, primarily because of financial matters without a broader thought, largely because of the pressures of the time. And at that moment, and of course, we were caught in that moment. So I have to tell you, I was in tears as well when that occurred. We're gonna do it differently and, and that's gonna make this conference a very, very special conference. Thank you. Then my second question, uh JD is to you, SDS U has multiple programs that are affiliate members of conferences, men's soccer, women's water polo, uh baseball, not every team part of the PAC 12 has a program. Uh What's the process going to be like kind of determining how those uh programs will be handled going forward? Thank you. Yeah, I mean, we'll look at is the PAC 12 as we, you know, again, consideration of who those next schools, uh, will be, will be part of sports offerings and then whether it's we're staying as an affiliate member somewhere or, you know, does the PAC 12 look at affiliate members depending on what that championship makeup we wanna have as a conference is. You know, that's what we're gonna be discussing over the next, what, 20 or so months as we lead into this, um, question to follow up for Adela. Um, can you take us through the risk assessment of your exit fee is gonna be probably close to $20 million.18 to $20 million depending on the conference distribution next year. Um How did you make that risk assessment? Not knowing what the television media rights contract is gonna be in this new conference? Um And knowing that the $20 million is a lot of money and I'm gonna let JD add to this, but I, you know, we, I think all presidents were able to assess this. We had very good data available to us about best and worst case scenarios like we did our, we did our due diligence. Uh We looked at the context of, again, potential media deals within that context. Um I can't share obviously everything that came into it. Um We worked with Legal Council, we worked with our A Ds and in that sense, we felt that uh without giving any strategy out out, we were able to move forward, understanding that all of us would be taking shared risks because that's the other one we're talking about rebuilding a conference. You have to accept the fact that there is risk involved and that risk was uh far less than the opportunity. Yeah, I would follow up exactly on that. You can't look at this as a short term type of uh discussion move. Obviously, the short term is important and what are you gonna do? Uh, but this is a long term move and we certainly, you know, a lot of data around what projected television rights would be, you know, it's, it's a good time to be in the market. I think. Um, you think about Warner Brothers discovery, you think about the CW both wanting to be part of it. You think about, you know, Fox CBS that are, you know, partners of the Mountain West right now that television deals up at the end of, you know, year two as we're walking out of the league. So it's a good time to be in the market. And, you know, based on the next steps that will happen, we feel like we're in a great place to be financially better than where we would have been even with the exit fee. And, you know, we'll, we will work through how exactly, you know, where the different pots of money are that are paying for that exit fee. I can tell you this, it won't be university funds, it won't be student fees. It won't be state money or anything like that that's on, uh, you know, me and the development team to, uh, to figure that out, Bob Mossberger over there. Um, so, but we, you know, at the end of the day it's, it's something that, yes, there's some risk in everything you do. We all, you know, we all accepted some risk when we got out of bed this morning. So, um, it's, it is definitely worth uh what we're gonna get in this in the long term. And then in terms of the timing of this, um I think a lot of people felt like this probably would be something that Oregon State and Washington State would investigate with, with Mountain West members. But for it happening right now, the Mountain West, uh, uh Commissioner Gloria Navarra just told me on Saturday and, and this has been going on since last spring has introduced modeling to try to have uneven revenue sharing uh in the Mount West that would allow schools like San Diego State that are very good in basketball long history to keep more of their. And so the tournament units have the opportunities to make more revenue. Um, did, did, why I guess the question is why did you feel it was appropriate to make this move now, instead of waiting and maybe going back to the Mountain West and negotiating to see what they could offer? I think that's an excellent question, but I do think one of the things you will notice in any of these decisions is that they are never easy. And the context that I think is really important is ensuring and in this context that the four institutions we're able to go through their respective processes, their boards, um ensure the type of confidentiality and do the due diligence. And it's very difficult to do that in a collective manner as we know what happened with the PAC 12 last August, uh which imploded. Um What every president must do is think of the best interests of their campus. All of us have that fiduciary responsibility. And I would say within that context, um we have to maintain uh our decision making within a confidential uh manner. Um I don't think that's gonna change for any future institutions. Um I don't think it's like other business deals where you go, they're offering me this. Hey, what are you gonna give me? So I just think that um this is really uh how presidents operate and you have to understand the constraints that we live in and they are different than the constraints that A DS live in. So we did what I think was important and we got the job done JD. There's a tremendous amount of excitement among Aztec fans a couple of years ago when there was the potential of joining the PAC 12. Uh This is a much different PAC 12. Now, what do you think they should still be excited about by making this move. San Diego State University and our athletic department continue to invest in being the best version of San Diego State that we can be. We want to go out and we want to put ourselves in the best situation that we possibly can to compete for championships at the conference level and then allow that to put us in the best place to do that at the national level. And I think with, you know, just what college athletics is today and what it's become over the last five years, uh, that we've done that. I mean, you know, just look at what we've done in the last, you know, however many years, you know, you go back to when Jim Stark got here, um, and the championships that we've won in the sweet sixteens and the final fours, you're sitting in a $310 million football stadium that, uh, the San Diego State in San Diego community, you know, made happen. So this is just the next step. Uh, you know, life is not a, you know, it's not a straight path. There's gonna be, you know, uh, forks in the road, twists, turns whatever it may be. And sometimes you get knocked down and you gotta stand up, dust yourself off and go figure out what's gonna be what's, what's best next and this is the next best thing and as this conference continues to be reconstituted. Would you like to see it stay regional on the west coast as opposed to having to have a couple of members that you have to fly across country to see? I think we will look at putting together the best possible conference that gives us the best opportunity for success at the athletic level and the academic level. And I would echo that as well. We want the best. Uh And I think that's gonna require us to be very thoughtful JD uh from a competition standpoint. Uh PAC 12 obviously lost its designation as a Power Autonomous conference with these additions and whoever else you bring, do you expect it getting back to that level? I mean, we're going to work towards that. I don't know that it's gonna come, it's not gonna come automatically. Uh It's gonna be something where we're gonna have to earn that. So, you know, you've got, uh again, it's, it's so dynamic. You've, this conference will start as a new CFP starts. Um This, you know, that's some of that's been settled, some of it hasn't been settled. Is it gonna be 12? Is it gonna be 14? Is it gonna be a 68 basketball tournament? Is it gonna be 72? Is it gonna be 76? You've got the house settlement out there. There's so many different things that, you know, we've got to work through. But the most important thing is the six of us at this point and then, you know, whoever the other members are, when we, you know, kick off the league on July 1 2026 we're gonna put our heads down collectively and we're gonna work as hard as possible to be at the top of the college athletics, um, spectrum. Uh, this technically is to, to both of you could, we just get a little bit more clarity on the timeline of how we got here. Obviously, we know about all the drama that we went through last year. But how did we go from door shut door open? Was the door always open? It just had varying degrees as to how much the door was open. Can you help us out with that? You know, I'm just going to say something. I was always curious about this, right? Meaning um I don't think this conversation in a formal sense was established. Uh You know, in, well, there is a formal entry point, I'll let JD talk to it, but I do think this is something that JD and I have talked about, um when we had, if you will, the collapse of the dream in August, right? And so this is something that we knew that we had to wait for that our time would come. And so from my point of view, I knew this was going to happen, I just didn't know when uh you know, timeline wise, this is, you know, it's been an ongoing discussion for a while, obviously, you know, a lot of discussion last summer and I don't know that, you know, things obviously quieted down for a while as everyone trying to kind of figure out how do we get through the short term. Um, and then, but, you know, we things can, you know, you continue to talk to people, um, because they're your colleagues and then probably, um, excuse me this summer, started having a few more conversations and, you know, probably really, you know, July athletic directors really started, you know, having some conversations and picked up steam through August. And then really, you know, things really took off this week uh to hammer out what is, you know, what was announced this morning. Could you both bring, give us some color about what the other three institutions in the new PAC 12 are bringing to the conference? Well, I would say if you look at the other uh institutions and the metrics, again, these are institutions with exceptional academic um uh impact um many of them in terms of social mobility, if you look at the trajectory of impact on and student success, quite remarkable um on, in terms of athletic uh impact uh conference impact, these are teams that are well regarded and obviously, in terms of um media share, there is a tremendous impact. I would say all of us are invested in seeing athletics. Well, we are committed to that. Um And we share these values uh closely in regard to students at our core, which is part of our, our strategic plan. But I would say how we will evolve um intersected very well with the values of the presidents of Oregon State and Washington University. And that's key because the presidents um will direct the future working with the A DS. Um So, um it, it was synergy in the sweetest sense of the word and I, I have to say I can't stop smiling JD. Uh, you know, the, obviously we know the three schools intimately and you look at the accomplishments of, you know, Boise State football, Fresno's had great football. Boise's been really good on the basketball side. Uh Colorado State, the basketball side, Oregon State, you know, that's a national championship baseball program. Uh, you know, I'm very familiar with the Coos and Wazoo having spent 10 years in Pullman and all the success that they've seen. So I, when you look at this athletically, you've got six schools that have been successful across the board, they've made um, or making the investments uh in their programs to make sure they stay successful at the um highest level. So it, you know, it made sense that this is the six that are together at this point. And again, there's a lot of, a lot of work for us to do over the next 20 or so months as we, you know, finish putting this together and move into, you know, the new PAC 12 uh Adela, I think one of the big surprises was that UN LV was not part, it was not one of the four schools um that joined. Um what, what's your take on, uh you know, UN LV, when you compare them to Fresno State has far superior athletic resources. Um Fresno State has had some financial issues, has some issues with the president's office also has had um uh is considered somewhere in the lower resourced athletic programs in the Mountain West. Are you surprised? UN LV was not included? Um Well, this was not a decision based on um the four presidents. It was really based on um the Os U and was U presidents with navigate in the context of how we would position ourselves and actually, um the exceptional promise of all the institutions in moving, moving us forward. Um I can't say I'm, I'm surprised because I was pleased with the configuration and actually the metrics and the metrics spoke to, to the decision making process and I, and they were very, very objective in that sense. So in my mind, I think it was the best four that were selected when it came time to for the Mountain West to make the decision. We'll let you go for a price. Did they cap how many they were willing to let go? Is that why there's only four? Uh I mean, I think at this point in those discussions, the you know, the PAC 12 and their consultants and the institutions uh looked at, you know, all the data that they had and, you know, brought a group of people together to, you know, discuss who were the right ones to go. And, you know, this is a, obviously a process that's gonna take multiple steps and this is where we're at. And when you get to the finish line with this financial package, are you guaranteed a new revenue share formula? If you have great football and basketball teams, I, I don't know, I call it bonus payments, but is that part of this deal or did you ask for it? Have they granted it? What's that gonna look like? You know, as we're, again, we're working through what that, you know, final contract will be. Uh, but certainly, you know, I thought of, uh that base revenue share where everyone has the chance to be successful. But then also to a certain extent, the ability to reward people for those successes is important. Couple more questions before we go to one on ones, there are six schools that are in the PAC 12 now paying a hefty fee to be able to go and do that. Um What message do you think that sends to college football athletics in general, um, about the strength of the conference and for potential people who might want to partner with you guys going forward, you know, that we're willing to make the investment to be at the highest level that we possibly can be. All right, that's it. Thanks. Thank you, everybody. Go Aztecs. Go Aztecs.