"We’re going to continue to be the Pac-12,” Teresa Gould vows to protect the Pac-12 brand amid widespread "Pac-2" tag

The Pac-12 announced Tereasa Gould as its new commissioner last month after it parted ways with George Kliavkoff. Gould was previously the conference’s acting deputy commissioner.

On Thursday, a day before she takes her new office, Gould vowed to protect the image and brand of the Pac-12. The conference is left with only two schools after last summer's implosion and has been tagged the “Pac-2” in many quarters.

“We are the Pac-12 Conference, and we’re going to continue to be the Pac-12 Conference,” Gould said. “That brand means something nationally, it means something in our footprint on the West Coast, it means something to our fanbase.

“So, we will continue to own the name, the logo and the intellectual property on that, and we think it’s definitely an asset that we need to think through moving forward, how we leverage and how that fits into our long-term strategy.”

Teresa Gould wants to maintain the Power Five standard in the Pac-12

The 10 members that left the Pac-12 went on to team with other Power Five leagues. Oregon State and Washington State are not planning to jump ship but work towards rebuilding the conference. There's undoubtedly a need to maintain the standards of the Power Five.

During the media session on Thursday, Teresa Gould commented on the importance of the conference operating on a Power Five standard going forward despite the losses.

She noted that the student-athletes at OSU and WSU are accustomed to the high level of Power Five and continuing with that will help retain them at their respective programs.

“It will be critical that, moving forward in the coming weeks, I build an organization and an operation that can collaborate and support Oregon State and Washington State in terms of the normal high-level, autonomy-five services that their student-athletes and programs have been accustomed to receiving,” Gould said.

“I need to retain and recruit the best talent, the people that are in this for the right reasons to support that student-athlete mission.”

Teresa Gould assumes the leadership of the conference at a time marked by unprecedented challenges and unpredictability across the landscape of collegiate sports. Nonetheless, she has to bring things to order at the embattled conference.

The primary duty of the new commissioner is to ensure the conference’s survival in the world of collegiate athletics. The league has a two-year grace period offered by the NCAA to meet the membership requirement. This suggests an expansion process is in the cards.