Larry Scott weighs in on the state of the Pac-12

Pac-12 media days kicked off on Thursday, and as usual, conference commissioner Larry Scott began the day with some remarks before taking a handful of questions from the assembled masses.

If you're one of the many, many folks out there with DirecTV and you were hoping Scott would give you great news about getting Pac-12 Networks on your carrier ... well, you're still outta luck. But he's hopeful -- like everyone else -- that the AT&T takeover of DirecTV will get things moving forward:

"Yeah, we are delighted that our good partner AT&T successfully acquired DIRECTV. We've been looking forward to this because we have an excellent relationship with AT&T, have now for a couple of years. They're a partner of all of our schools. They're a partner of the conference. Their video service, AT&T U-verse distributes the Pac-12 Networks. They're delighted with it, and obviously, they've now got to digest a $49 billion dollar acquisition, but I'm confident we'll be a priority, and there will be discussions that take place hopefully very soon.

"I'm optimistic that we'll have positive conversations. I can't predict what may happen when because those conversations have not been able to take place heretofore. But I'm delighted for our partners, delighted for us."

Unsurprisingly, officiating also came up, although the reporter asking the question deserves kudos for doing it in a way that was a little more creative than "why do the referees in your conference suck?"

Q. Nine of the 25 most penalized tames last year in FCS were in the Pac-12. There seems to be a perception of overzealousness by officiating crews. I'm wondering if you think it's a case of overzealousness, or if there's a lack of discipline on the teams?

Also unsurprisingly, Scott didn't take the bait.

"Well, it's something we track and something we talk about regularly with our coaches. I don't think it's overzealousness, but there is a certain style of play in the Pac-12 that's led itself to certain types of penalties, holding and others. And that is the very open, fast-paced, multiple plays, lot of throwing plays types of offense a lot of our teams are known for. We do tend to run more plays than other conferences.

"As we've looked at it, that is one of the criteria that we've identified that's probably always going to lend itself to more penalties. There is a direct correlation between the number of offensive plays that you run and the number of penalties."

Well, good to know our conference commissioner is good at math!

In case you were wondering, no, the Pac-12 has no plans to expand anytime soon.

"Yeah, I do not see us expanding for the foreseeable future. We are delighted with 12 schools. It's worked exceedingly well for us."

Half of the schools had their moment in the sun yesterday; you can read about what they had to say in a number of the links below

The Cougs will be up today at 12:15 on Pac-12 Networks -- Mike Leach, Jeremiah Allison and Joe Dahl will take the stage at that time, and our own Jeff Collier will be on the scene. We'll have updates throughout the day here at the site and on our Twitter account.

Links

Cougars Head To Pac-12 Media Days - Washington State University Official Athletic Site
Head coach Mike Leach, senior linebacker Jeremiah Allison and redshirt-senior offensive lineman Joe Dahl are at Warner Bros. Studios this week to represent Washington State University at the Pac-12 Football Media Days.

Pac-12 Media Days day one notebook | The Spokesman-Review
Here's a sampling of what we learned during the first half of Pac-12 Media Days.

Notes from Pac-12 media day | The Spokesman-Review
Coaches and athletes are still speaking at Pac-12 media days. I'll update this post with the most interesting tidbits as I hear them.

WazzuWatch.com - Scott: Pac-12 perception on upward curve
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott realizes the perception of his conference nationally, especially among the media in the Eastern Time Zone, has not been very high in the past.

WSU football: Pac-12 media day notebook - Washington State - Scout
ARIZONA WILL hold the home field advantage over Washington State when they meet up on Oct. 24. But the Cougars may hold an advantage of their own.

My Pac-12 preseason media poll ballot | The Spokesman-Review
The Pac-12 will release its Pac-12 preseason media poll Thursday morning. Here is my ballot.

New WSU roster shows some casualties - Washington State - Scout
TWO MEMBERS of WSU's incoming recruiting class are missing from the updated roster the school released today: CB Sean Harper and OL Joseph Price. In addition, two veterans expected to contend for the starting long snapper job are no longer on the roster, nor is 333-pound OL Sean Krepsz, a touted member of the 2014 recruiting class.

Junior Longrus Named to NABC Honors Court - Washington State University Official Athletic Site
Longrus is majoring in management operations with a 3.31 GPA.