*** The Pac-12 Hotline newsletter is published each Monday-Wednesday-Friday during the college sports season (and twice-a-week in the summer). This edition, from Dec. 4, has been made available in archived form.

Pac-12 Carries the Diversity Flag

Jimmy Lake’s move to the big chair at Washington furthered the changing makeup of the Pac-12 football coaching lineup.

The development wasn’t mentioned earlier in the week, but nor was it lost on the Hotline.

Rather, we opted to wait through the initial wave of news and reaction — Chris Petersen’s abrupt resignation, Lake’s promotion, the subsequent news conference — before stepping back for a look at the big picture.

The big, important picture.

The moment Lake takes charge of the Huskies’ program (after the bowl game), the Pac-12 will have five African-American head coaches.

That equals the number in the rest of the Power Five combined.

When it comes to diversity at the top of the football org chart, the Pac-12 is lapping the competition.

Here’s the current breakdown — there are scattered vacancies around the country — in ascending order of percentage:

Big 12
Total: zero out of 10 schools
Percentage: zero
Coaches: None
Current vacancies: None

ACC
Total: one out of 14 schools
Percentage: 7.1
Coaches: Syracuse’s Dino Babers
Current vacancies: Boston College, Florida State

SEC
Total: one out of 14 schools
Percentage: 7.1
Coaches: Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason
Current vacancies: Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi

Big Ten
Total: three out of 14 schools
Percentage: 21.4
Coaches: Illinois’ Lovie Smith, Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Penn State’s James Franklin
Current vacancies: None

Pac-12
Total: five out of 12 schools
Percentage: 41.6
Coaches: Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin, ASU’s Herm Edwards, Colorado’s Mel Tucker, Stanford’s David Shaw and Washington’s Lake.
Current vacancies: None

Add Oregon’s Mario Cristobal, who is Cuban-American, and half the coaches in the Pac-12 are non-Caucasian.

But the diversity in key leadership positions doesn’t end with football.

Five of the conference’s 12 athletic directors are non-Caucasian males: ASU’s Ray Anderson, Stanford’s Bernard Muir, UCLA’s Dan Guerrero, Washington’s Jen Cohen and Washington State’s Pat Chun.

As are four of the presidents/chancellors: Cal’s Carol Christ, USC’s Carol Folt, Utah’s Ruth Watkins and Washington’s Ana-Mari Cauce.

We should note that the Pac-12 currently has no ethnic diversity within its men’s basketball coaching ranks (for the first time since the 1970s).

But given the importance of the football coach and athletic director positions — not only in the areas of mentoring and revenue generation but also messaging/branding for the schools — the Pac-12 is clearly carrying the Power Five flag. — Jon Wilner

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Hot off the Hotline

• Power Tuesday began on the football side, where the latest power ratings addressed a key question on Montlake: How will Jimmy Lake handle his offensive staff, especially the coordinator position?

• The basketball power ratings, published later Tuesday morning, focused on contributions from several key freshmen — just not the freshmen you might have expected.

• The Pac-12 stands to reap several million dollars in unexpected revenue if two teams participate in the New Year’s Six. We examined the process by which the money might flow and the committee’s latest moves with regard to Utah — all in the updated bowl projections.

• ICYMI: The Monday newsletter sketched out Chris Petersen’s substantial legacy — just imagine west coast football without him over the past decade. Previous editions of the newsletter are available in archived form.

Last Chance: The Hotline’s Cyber Monday deal

• I’m pleased to extend a terrific offer to Hotline readers: a penny a day for four months. Yep, for a mere $1.23, you receive unlimited access to Hotline content — and we have a lot of content — through the bowl season, early recruiting, the NFL Draft deadline, late recruiting, the basketball regular season and March Madness. The deal ends today. Sign up here.

Coaching Carousel

• FootballScoop is reporting that Clay Helton will be retained. If true, it 1) benefits any competitor hoping to recruiting Southern California and 2) sets up an interesting dynamic between the university and its fans. Many have already voted with their game day absence. More will follow.

• Chris Petersen said he isn’t “ready to do nothing. I’ve just got to figure out where all this energy and this passion and inspiration goes.” … USA Today’s Dan Wolken believes it’s perfectly reasonable for Petersen to step away to recharge: “Given how miserable so many aspects of the coaching profession are these days and how much money these guys make, how can you really blame him for deciding it’s time to live a different life.” … Lastly, CBS Sports columnist Dennis Dodd writes on the grind claiming another victim: Stoops, Meyer … now Petersen.

Huddle Up

(Note: The Hotline newsletter includes links to sites that could require a subscription once the number of free views has been reached.)

• No surprise I: Colorado receiver Laviska Shenault, arguably the top playmaker in the conference, is turning pro. (Initial projections have him in the second half of the first round.)

• No surprise II: Oregon State receiver Isaiah Hodgins, one of the most productive pass catchers in the conference, is turning pro. (Not a first-round pick.)

• Rob Likens, recently dismissed as ASU’s offensive coordinator, spoke publicly about the development and defended his playcalling. “I had to make sure I was looking out for my quarterback.”

• Evan Weaver didn’t make Pro Football Focus’ all-Pac-12 team, and Jake Curtis of CalBearsMaven has some thoughts on the snub.

• Utah’s defense faces its toughest test in weeks on Friday. Maintaining the jaw-dropping statistics will be a challenge against Justin Herbert and Co.

• The Ducks have respect for Utah’s relentless, physical style of defense … However, they weren’t happy with their performance offensively in the Civil War. (It was alarmingly bad, we’d say.)

• It’s that time: Two UCLA linebackers have entered the transfer portal. (Actually, any time is portal time.)

• The Seattle Times’ Matt Calkins wonders what steps, if any, Jimmy lake will take to fix the Huskies offense.

State of Affairs

Perspective on the conference from beyond its borders …

• Utah can “breathe a little easier,” writes The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, who notes the glowing comments about the Utes from committee chair Rob Mullens. Adds Mandel: “If Kyle Whittingham’s team can beat No. 13 Oregon on Friday night in Santa Clara and get some help from No. 1 LSU erasing No. 4 Georgia in Atlanta, it’s in pretty good shape to make the Playoff. Or at least better shape than it would have been had the committee jumped 11-1 Oklahoma above it on Tuesday.”

• Utah (or Baylor) would add some new blood to a playoff that has been dominated by a few programs, notes CBS’ Dodd: “Two teams that have spent exactly zero weeks at No. 1 in the 83-year-old history of the AP Top 25, find themselves not only with CFP aspirations but also worthy of them.”

• Yahoo gives Colorado coach Mel Tucker a ‘C’ for his first-year performance. “The offense wasn’t as good as it was in 2018 despite the returns of Steven Montez and Laviska Shenault, and the defense was slightly worse in Tucker’s first season than it was in MacIntyre’s last.” Hmmm.

Legal Affairs

• Good read from the Arizona Daily Star, which covered a panel discussion Monday evening in Tucson that included Arizona president Robert Robbins, athletic directors Dave Heeke (Arizona) and Rick George (Colorado) and economist Andy Schwarz. The topic: name, image and likeness. “We have to move a big ship — the NCAA and its member institutions — in a way that allows us to be thoughtful, but we’ve got to do it right,” said George, who’s on the NCAA’s NIL working group. “It’s not yet clear what name, image and likeness rules will look like. Whatever it is, it’s not going to satisfy some people, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be what we think gives (student-athletes) the best opportunity.”

• Seven Stanford coaches were approached by the mastermind of the college admissions scandal, according to an internal review. Only one participated in the fraud. Interestingly, per the Mercury News: “Stanford did not address whether other coaches tried to raise red flags with administrators.”

On the Hardwood

• Arizona freshman Nico Mannion had a heck of a week.

• Washington coach Mike Hopkins addressed Petersen’s departure. “When you have a guy that wears that type of cloth, you want to pick his brain you want to do everything you can to learn from him and grow.”

• Colorado, although ranked and undefeated, nonetheless has work ahead to sharpen its offensive efficiency.

• Same for Oregon, which played well — very well — in the Bahamas. Coach Dana Altman wants his team to get tougher. “We took it weak to the basket a few times.”

Medal Stand

A section devoted to content on Pac-12 Olympic sports.

• Pac-12 basketball columnist Michelle Smith highlighted the top freshmen in the conference as the focus of her overview (last week but still valid).

• Arizona State is adding size to its roster. Significant size, in the form of 6-foot-4 center Imogen Greenslade, from Australia

• Utah’s volleyball program had its best season in nearly a decade. As a result, Beth Launiere was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

• UCLA. Stanford. College Cup semifinals. Friday.

Looking Ahead

What’s coming on the Pac-12 Hotline:

• Handicapper Raphael Esparza and I take a deep dive into the championship game in the picks of the week column.

• Grading … myself: The Hotline takes a hard look at our preseason predictions for each team. How often were we wrong and just how wrong were we?

• Loads more planned for the next five days, all of it in various stages of development (and pending results on the field).

The next newsletter is scheduled for Friday. Enjoy it? Please forward this email to friends (sign up here). If you don’t, or have other feedback, let me know: pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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