LAS VEGAS — If the days of Larry Scott’s 12-year reign as Pac-12 Conference commissioner were defined by the annual questions about DirecTV and expanding the league network’s reach to more households, then successor George Kliavkoff is entering Year 3 of 5 without a solution for untangling the mess left behind and presenting a healthy outlook for the immediate future.

After his state-of-the-conference address Friday morning from Resorts World’s Zouk Nightclub main stage at Pac-12 Media Day, Kliavkoff was predictably peppered with questions about the league’s future media rights deal negotiations that have produced very little clarity over most of the past year.

Before taking questions, Kliavkoff did his best to get ahead of the topic and insisted the conference’s original timeline is still on track and expects an “announcement in the near future.” He added that the Pac-12’s Grant of Rights has “already been negotiated” and will be announced alongside a new TV deal.

“The patience will be rewarded,” he said.

Ahead of Media Day, Yahoo Sports senior college football writer Ross Dellenger reported Tuesday that the league would not announce a new media rights deal at the event and it would likely extend into August.

So, if those rights have already been negotiated, then why not now to make a grand announcement?

“We are not announcing the TV deal today because I want the focus to be on football,” Kliavkoff said.

Last year, UCLA and USC’s surprise exit to the Big Ten starting in August 2024 put the heat on the Pac-12’s timeline. In the Pac-12, UCLA and USC were distributed $37 million apiece in 2022-23.

The figure is not quite the $50 million the SEC distributed to each of its 14 members in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The gap, of course, can be attributed to Scott’s brainchild, the Pac-12 Network, failing to get more eyes on the product as other leagues entered media rights deals with far greater national exposure. The Pac-12’s pie-in-the-sky revenue projections turned into broken promises for each school’s annual distribution.

The Big Ten’s seven-year, $7 billion rights agreement with CBS, FOX and NBC is expected to distribute in the range of $80 million to $100 million per year to each school, though ESPN reported in May that unsettled figures will likely lead to its own lower-than-expected revenue per school. It remains to be seen where the exact number falls. Still, the addition of the Los Angeles market has only increased the league’s value while dealing a blow to the Pac-12’s ongoing negotiations.

In the months since UCLA and USC’s announced departure, numerous anonymous Pac-12 sources have expressed optimism about a soon-to-be-announced deal to various outlets. The problem is the goal post and definition of “soon” continued changing, only for an announcement yet to materialize.

In that time, Kliavkoff himself has remained silent on the subject since January while others outside of the conference have taken shots at the current situation and have openly suggested that the Pac-12 is nearing extinction.

“I could have spent the last year on a he-said, she-said on every rumor that has been passed on our conference,” Kliavkoff said. “We decided to take the high road.

“I know where the sources of that are coming from. I discount that because I know the truth.”

With the Pac-12’s current deal with FOX and ESPN set to expire next July, the rumored-but-unconfirmed negotiating partners have extended to streaming services Amazon and Apple. It’s become more and more difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to potential carriers with serious interest.

“The longer we wait for a media deal, the better our options get,” Kliavkoff said.

In the process, an attempt to bring in San Diego State fell short with things still in limbo by the school’s June 30 deadline, according to Yahoo Sports, and last October the Big 12 cut in line to lock in a six-year, $2.3 billion agreement with FOX and ESPN starting in 2025. The latter move, in particular, has only ramped up the speculation about Colorado’s future with the Pac-12 and the potential for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark to possibly poach an additional member institution.

“It’s not a concern. Our schools are committed to each other and committed to the Pac-12,” Kliavkoff said of the possibility.

Kliavkoff’s eventual end result, and the ripple effects as far as who’s still in and who’s out of the conference, will likely be his Pac-12 legacy — and determine his own fate beyond his contract.

The pages on the calendar continue to turn, the clock continues to tick.