“My sense is we need to get it done in March — in mid-March, hopefully,” Schulz told the Hotline on Monday. “The longer it goes, the more noise there will be.”
There is already plenty of noise, with frequent reports speculating about a disappointing media contract and frustrated schools seeking salvation in the Big 12.
The public narrative became so bleak last week that the presidents issued a joint statement of unity. Schulz knew it carried a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” component.
“I thought people would see it as the same thing a head coach does when he says publicly that he loves his staff, then he fires them all,” Schulz said.
“But we were getting battered constantly with all the rhetoric out of the Big 12 (region), with talk that schools were leaving … At the least, we had to let people know the 10 Pac-12 schools were committed to staying together.
“But the speed with which (the presidents) were willing to put that out — I was stunned by my colleagues. Somebody said, ‘We should do something,’ and within an hour, everyone was saying yes … Normally, everyone wants to be a wordsmith.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/02/21/ ... dent-says/