There are highs and lows in every career.
For Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould, the journey has been less like a steady climb and more like a roller coaster, one filled with unexpected turns, exhilarating milestones and drops that, in the moment, were difficult to understand.
After 35-plus years in Division I college athletics, Gould is still learning to navigate the ride.
She is also learning when to pause it.
“One piece of advice I would give myself is to slow down long enough to celebrate,” Gould said. “Slow down long enough to take in the milestones and the successes.”
That has not always come naturally. Gould has spent much of her career focused on the next challenge, decision or person who needs her attention.
“I don’t think I’ve done that, quite candidly — to take a step back, hit pause and go, ‘Wow, look what we’ve done together,’” Gould said.
Gould worked in conference administration, the private sector and senior campus roles before joining the Pac-12 as deputy commissioner in 2018.
In February 2024, she was officially appointed commissioner of the Pac-12.
Almost none of it was mapped out in advance.
“Nothing about my career went as planned,” Gould said. “Nothing.”
She did not anticipate becoming interim athletic director at UC Davis or know how each move would prepare her for what came next.
“I never envisioned being a commissioner for a conference that was in the midst of such transition,” Gould said. “Change is constant and often unexpected.”
Those unexpected moments became some of the most formative.
“All the twists and turns and unexpected opportunities have been so incredibly rewarding, both personally and professionally,” she said. “They absolutely have made me who I am, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Only later could she recognize the growth that accompanied the difficult moments.
“I think it’s important to learn how to lean into the roller coaster ride,” Gould said. “It has been a roller coaster with a whole lot of highs and some difficult lows.”
Gould continued by saying, “I’m not sure when I was in it that I appreciated the positive growth, individually and organizationally, that comes from the low points.”
Gould has needed that perspective during a period unlike any other in the Pac-12’s history.
She inherited the commissioner’s role as the conference navigated the departure of 10 universities, an uncertain future for Oregon State and Washington State, and questions about whether the league itself would survive.
It required Gould to rely on a belief she has carried throughout her career:
Nothing matters more than relationships.
“Whether I was on a campus, in a conference or working in the private sector, I will always go back to that,” Gould said. “Nothing matters more than relationships.”
She sees an industry increasingly driven by transactions, leverage and short-term positioning.
“I think we are at a time in our industry where it feels like relationships are becoming less and less important,” she said. “I don’t agree with that at all.”
Two years ago, she laid off approximately 150 employees while assembling a much smaller group to carry the conference through an uncertain future. It was a necessary move to help save the conference’s future. Gould was quick to lean on those who remained though the chaos.
“My team doesn’t get talked about very often,” Gould said. “I had to handpick a small group of people to jump into the foxhole with me. There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty.”
The people she selected had no guarantee the conference — or their positions — would survive.
“We’re sitting here today because I picked the right people,” Gould said. “People put their careers on the line. They had to go home to their families and say, ‘Teresa asked me to stay. I don’t know if I’m going to have a job. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but she wants me to stay.’”
They said yes.
For Gould, the Pac-12’s future belongs as much to those employees as to any commissioner, president or athletic director.
“We’re celebrating right now because of them,” she said.
She also credits university presidents and athletic directors who saw opportunity in an uncertain moment.
“They believed in taking this historic legacy league and recreating it into the conference of the future,” Gould said. “They embraced the uncertainty and said, ‘No, we can do something special here.’”
Cameron Walker, Vice President and Director of athletics at Utah State, said Gould’s leadership has been indispensable to the conference’s new beginning.
“Teresa is a dynamic leader who is embracing what college athletics should look like in 2026 and beyond,” Walker said. “There is no question the Pac-12 wouldn’t be starting anew without her vision and leadership.”
Gould’s leadership, however, is not rooted in trying to resemble those who held similar positions before her.
Her advice to the next generation — particularly women entering an industry in which they remain underrepresented — is to resist that temptation.
“Have the courage to be yourself,” Gould said.
When she began her career, Gould rarely saw women occupying the positions she hoped to reach.
“I don’t think I ever had a female boss until I was about 20 years into my career,” she said.
More women now hold visible leadership roles, yet underrepresentation can still create pressure to conform to styles established by men.
“There’s a tendency to look at our male counterparts and think we have to be like them because they set the tone,” Gould said. “I disagree with that unequivocally.”
“I think women inherently have talents, gifts, perspectives, intuition and abilities that are different than men,” Gould said. “Have the courage to be yourself. That usually means being different. Trust that you can be authentic and true to who you are and still be successful.”
Gould encourages emerging leaders to build what she calls a “diverse front row” — an inner circle of mentors, advocates and trusted voices with different experiences and perspectives.
“Your front row is your team, your inner circle of mentors and champions,” Gould said. “Surround yourself with people who are all very different and can help support and shape who you become from a lot of different vantage points.”
That diversity matters as college athletics confronts questions that old models cannot solve. Gould believes leaders must examine whether the industry itself needs to be reconstructed.
“Maybe there’s a better model,” Gould said. “Maybe we should be looking at football differently than the other sports. Maybe we should be thinking about reinventing our industry a little bit.”
“We need to find a way that makes more sense for student-athletes and optimizes opportunity for everyone,” Gould said.
She hopes leaders will find an alternative to the instability defining conference realignment.
“I’m hopeful that, in the long term, we as leaders can figure out a different way forward,” Gould said. “We need to discontinue what I think is an unhealthy practice of realigning conferences year after year, chasing after something that maybe isn’t the right motivation.”
For Gould, the motivation should return to student-athletes, who remain her anchor.
“What I anchor myself in is the incredible opportunity I’ve had in my career to positively impact the trajectory of young people’s lives,” Gould said.
That purpose can be harder to see amid NIL, revenue sharing, the transfer portal and the professionalization of college sports. The circumstances have changed. The responsibility has not.
“It is still about that,” Gould said. “It will always be about that.”
Whether an athlete stays one semester or five years, the obligation remains the same.
“Our commitment and responsibility to them doesn’t change,” she said.
She finds perspective for her own challenges in the demands placed on student-athletes.
“Look how hard these young people are working,” Gould said. “Look what they’re juggling every day. Look what they signed up for in terms of the rigors of being a student-athlete.”
“That anchors me to weather the storm and not get rattled,” Gould said.
There will be more storms.
College athletics will keep changing. The roller coaster will climb, drop and turn again.
Gould no longer expects the ride to follow a plan.
She trusts her relationships, the people in her front row and the purpose that has guided her career. Discomfort, she understands, can be evidence of growth.
“Just ride the wave and lean into the highs and lows,” Gould would tell her younger self. “It might feel a little uncomfortable, but let it ride.”
The next lesson may be learning to pause between the turns.
To look at the colleagues who entered the foxhole with her, the institutions that embraced uncertainty, and the conference many believed would not survive.
To hit pause long enough to recognize the milestone.
And finally allow herself to say:
“Wow, look what we’ve done together.”