Never before has the conference office responded to the arrival of a transfer or recruit the way it did to the Oklahoma quarterback committing to USC.
Quarterback Caleb Williams’ decision last week to transfer to USC wasn’t the least bit surprising given his ties to new coach Lincoln Riley.
Granted, it was huge news. National news. Here was the No. 1 quarterback in the transfer portal, a potential Heisman Trophy candidate, joining forces with his high-profile former coach in the nation’s largest media market at one of the sport’s blue-blood programs.But the reaction on official Pac-12 platforms was wholly unexpected.
That became clear last summer, when Kliavkoff spoke publicly about the difference between fair and equal treatment when it comes to strategic issues like football scheduling. But Williams was national news, because of his success last season at Oklahoma, in a way those players weren’t.And, crucially, the schools recognize that times have changed, that fair doesn’t mean equal.