LAS VEGAS -- The Sky Suites two-bedroom Sky Villa at ARIA Resort and Casino includes 24-hour butler service and luxury airport transportation.
It has its own private elevator and 3,370-square feet of space. There’s a marble jacuzzi soaking tub in the suite, a fully stocked bar, and a powder room.
Book the suite and you and your guests will gain access to a private pool. Upon arrival, you’ll also be served a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Typical nightly rate: $7,500.
This is the dump Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott locked up for his stay in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, the Pac-12 men’s basketball teams will embark on a four-day battle for the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth. And Scott will spend four nights living better than just about anyone in the imperial monarchy.
Just wait until the Pac-12 athletic directors hear about this.
The ADs have been bellyaching for years about “limo Larry’s” expenses. The conference is lagging behind its Power Five Conference peers when it comes to financial distributions to members. The men and women responsible for budgeting for athletics on their own campuses would like to examine the financials.
In fact, in January at the NCAA Convention in Orlando, the conference athletic directors met with Scott and requested a budget review.
“It’s been a constant topic for the last few months,” one Pac-12 AD said. “We’ve talked at length about it. There have been phone calls back and forth.
“We’re not trying to be difficult. We’re just in cost-containment mode and there are some who want to compare the financials of our conference and others.”
Scott shot them down.
Said a second Pac-12 Conference athletic director: “We, as ADs, were told that we didn’t have the authority to request a budget review. Only the presidents and chancellors can do that.”
It’s a familiar cycle, isn’t it?
One that might be amusing if it weren’t so blasted sad.
There’s a Saturday-morning Pac-12 meeting scheduled at ARIA. The Pac-12 athletic directors and presidents and chancellors will join Scott and discuss a variety of conference matters. Five years ago when Scott met with his ADs in Las Vegas he had a terse, but telling, exchange with then-Utah athletic director Chris Hill.
Hill, dissatisfied with revenue, pressed Scott on the financials of the conference. He was cut off by the commissioner at the knees, according to others in the room.
Scott sniped: “You’re lucky for what you get.”
On Saturday, I hope one of the matters discussed is how much longer the Pac-12 has to endure Scott as its commissioner. But sources tell me the conference’s football bowl partnerships and an update on the media right’s saga are more likely agenda items.
A third conference AD said, “The Pac-12 Network remains the golden egg that hasn’t hatched.”
The conference athletic directors and presidents are not staying in a 3,300-square foot crib at the ARIA Resort. They’ll stay at their respective team hotels. Places such as MGM Grand, Bellagio and The Venetian.
Said one Aria employee: “You get to the Sky Suite level here and the carpet is different. The walls are different. Everything is different."
This is as mad as March will get for the Pac-12.
One or two Pac-12 men’s teams may qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but for the second consecutive year the conference won’t register nationally. That comes on the heels of being left out of the College Football Playoff for the second straight season. These are symptoms of a conference that is operating at a financial disadvantage, led by a commissioner who likes to travel first cabin himself.
Scott’s suite this week is a “comp," per a representative of the hotel. It’s part of the conference’s compensation package in bringing the basketball event to the Strip, also in booking meeting rooms and hotel rooms.
The optics of Scott’s choice for a suite this week in Las Vegas are awful, no matter the cost. Good leadership just wouldn’t stay in that suite, even at a heavily discounted nightly rate. Soaking in a marble tub while the rest of the conference staffers and teams are slumming it across the street isn’t a move that screams cohesion.
It’s another one of those, “You’re lucky for what you get," moments brought to you by Scott.
I hoped for change. I wished for it. But in the end, I don’t think the commissioner has learned a thing in the last six months.
On Sunday night, at the women’s Pac-12 Tournament championship game between Oregon and Stanford, for example, Scott walked into the arena before tip and shook exactly one hand.
It belonged to University of Oregon president, Michael Schill.
Scott hung on the rail near Schill’s seat, smiling and talking with one of his bosses for nearly 10 minutes before tip. Then, the commissioner moved down the way and talked with Ducks AD Rob Mullens for a few minutes. I kept waiting to see if Scott would high-five a family, or wave to a section of Pac-12 fans who invested hard-earned money in following one of his teams to Las Vegas.
Instead, he worked Schill. Because that’s job security, folks.
The rest of Scott’s evening included a television interview with the ESPN2 crew at halftime, a brief post-game trophy presentation for Stanford, and presumably a limousine ride back to that $7,500-a-night suite at ARIA.
Last week, I spoke at length with Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey. All Sankey does is check his ego, put the needs of his conference members first, and foster a winning environment.
“One of our strategic priorities internally is to continue to build a culture of collegiality and collaboration across our entire league despite the intense competitive environment,” Sankey told me.
The SEC isn’t just a football giant. Sankey’s conference landed eight teams in the 2018 men’s NCAA Tournament field. The SEC is a machine, led by a guy who not only invites his athletic directors to be part of the process, but listens to them.
Scott was the right leader for the Pac-12 a decade ago when he was hired. He did some nice things, including adding Utah and Colorado in expansion. He also negotiated the conference’s first lucrative television-rights deal. But he’s so wrong for the Pac-12 Conference now.
It’s outgrown him.
The Pac-12 doesn’t just need money. It needs new leadership.
I don’t think Scott will be able to see it. Especially not from high above, looking down from his villa in the sky.