Arizona State president Michael Crow wasn't the one holding up Pac-12 media deal

In August, The Los Angeles Times created an uproar when it reported that one of the Pac-12 league presidents had worked with a professor to come up with an estimate about how much the remaining schools in the conference could get in a new media rights deal after USC and UCLA's departures to the Big Ten and reached a decision that the number was $50 million.

ESPN had reportedly offered $30 million per school before that decision, and balked after the number went up.

Speculation immediately buzzed about who that president could be, and Arizona State's Michael Crow was at the forefront of the chatter, with rumors swirling that ASU's president was the unnamed actor who allegedly played an outsized role in the Pac-12's collapse.

But the speculation was wrong.

A Pac-12 Insider recently discovered the president of the school responsible and it was not Arizona State's Michael Crow.

It was Utah's Taylor Randall, according to Pac-12 Insider John Canzano, who revealed the details of the situation in a report on Friday.

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Many college writers had speculated that it had been Crow because of his history of being a staunch supporter of the Pac-12 and his record as "an ardent Larry Scott defender."

"It all points back to Crow and Arizona State," one Pac-12 writer wrote.

Except it didn't, as unearthed by Canzano in his story Friday.

Randall issued a statement on the situation to Canzano.

“The Pac-12 Presidents and Chancellors worked collectively in pursuit of a new media rights agreement,” Randall wrote.  “Though an offer was made by one of our media partners, we elected to take the rights to market to get the best deal. Throughout the process, many of the CEOs — including myself — pushed to ensure that the conference was aggressive to secure the very best agreement we could.

“Several conference schools retained their own consultants to value the league, which resulted in a range of estimations. It is my understanding that any mention of $50 million, which was higher than any valuation, was only as a potential starting point in negotiations to help get us to the estimated true value.”

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The Pac-12 was never able to secure a new media rights deal, with that $30 million offer from ESPN likely the best one it received. Colorado jumped to the Big 12, and Arizona State, Arizona and Utah followed.

Stanford and California later headed to the ACC, leaving Washington State and Oregon State as the conference's lone remaining teams.

ASU's Crow has taken a lot of heat for his handling of the situation with the Pac-12 and college conference expansion and realignment, but don't blame him for the Pac-12's demise.

The speculation was wrong.

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pac-12 Conference collapse not fault of Arizona State's Michael Crow