Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott taking 20% pay cut during coronavirus pandemic

The Pac-12 is cutting back during the coronavirus pandemic, starting at the top as commissioner Larry Scott is reportedly taking a 20% pay cut to save costs during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Reported by The Mercury News, Scott is taking a 20% pay cut of his $5.3 million salary. There’s also reports of pay cuts for executive staff members and the Pac-12 Network will also be laying off approximately 8% of their staff during this time. The Pac-12 Network layoff is reportedly set to be roughly 12 full-time members.

Though unsurprising due to the lack of live sports during the outbreak, it’s still a harsh card of reality dealt to us out west. The salary cutbacks are scheduled to run through June with what happens after that still unseen.

The executive staff members pay cut projects to be around 10% to ‘members of senior staff in both conference and networks divisions’ for the remainder of the year.

A memo, wrote by Scott and obtained by The Mercury News writes:

“The new strategic plan is designed to adapt our organization to the fiscal realities of the very rapidly changing media landscape and the current financial pressures brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, and set us up for future success,” Scott wrote in the memo.

“The plan is the culmination of a comprehensive process conducted by Mark (Shuken, the president of the networks), myself and our leadership team, in close consultation with our members, and is essential to achieving the goals set forth for our members.

“It shares a number of elements of strategies that other media companies have rolled out over the past many months given the similar challenges and opportunities that we are all facing in the industry.

“At its core, the new plan will deliver on four essential areas – our Mission, our Financial Targets, Emerging Media Opportunities and Future Value.

“It is an unfortunate reality that in order to make these necessary changes, while we have made every effort to limit the impact on employees, we have had to make some difficult decisions and will be reducing the Pac-12 Networks workforce by 8%.”

There’s also a hiring freeze set to begin and the only exception to that will be the hiring of potential ‘critical function’ positions.

The pay cut from Scott and staff comes after Oregon announced a voluntary pay cut by university president Michael School as well as reductions to senior staff pay as well. Reports are that the Pac-12 is set to lose $15.5 million during this outbreak, roughly $1.3 million per school due to the cancellations of March Madness, postseason play for most winter sports and the total stoppage of spring sports.

It’s a step in the right direction, to save costs where you can during the outbreak, and here’s hoping all we have to do is get to June for sports to get back but most importantly for the country to be safe.