After initially looking as though it would receive major reconstructive surgery, the Pacific 10 Conference, for now, was only given a minor facelift.
As late as June 13, it appeared half of the Big 12, including Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M would join the Pac-10 to form a 16-team conference. In the end, however, Colorado was the only school who officially decided to join the Pac-10, and on Thursday, Utah from the Mountain West Conference was also added to the mix.
Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott was clearly excited to add Colorado, regardless of the outcome of the rest of the invitations.
“We’ve been looking at Colorado for quite some time. It was clear to us that for any scenario, Colorado is a great fit … under any circumstances we are thrilled to have Colorado be a part of our conference,” Scott said.
The addition of Utah was clearly not Scott’s first plan, but Scott nonetheless was happy to include the Mountain West school and expand to 12 teams. The conference wanted a member that fit its academic profile as well as athletic profile, which is why academically pedestrian Boise State was not considered.
“The addition of the University of Utah as the conference’s 12th member continues to strengthen the Pac-10’s goals of becoming the country’s leader in college athletics,” Scott said in a release. “The University of Utah is a great academic and athletic fit, and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Pac-10.”
Although the Pac-10 only added two teams in this round of expansion, Scott has hinted this is only the beginning of conference expansion. Certainly, the Big 12 is on shaky ground, having almost been completely destroyed.
Utah, obviously, is ecstatic. The university leapt at the chance to jump into a BCS conference.
“I have no doubt, speaking for the entire University of Utah family, we could not be more pleased to accept the invitation to join the Pac-10,” Univeristy president Michael Young said in a release.
Most Pac-10 coaches have said their major concern is preserving traditional rivalries within the conference, so that certainly will impact how the conference is divided.
A potential Pac-12 could be divided into North and South divisions, with Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal and Stanford forming the North, and UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah forming the South. Cal and Stanford could also be switched with Colorado and Utah to allow the California schools to play each other every season.
Another possibility is West and East divisions, with Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal and Stanford forming the West division, and UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado forming the East division.
An intriguing suggestion by Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News is the “zipper” format, which splits the traditional rivalries into different divisions. Under this model, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona and Colorado would be in one division, while Washington State, Oregon State, Cal, USC, Arizona State and Utah would form the other division. Critics of the format have said this plan makes it harder to travel on ever-shrinking athletic budgets, but it would guarantee rivals could play each other every year, and possibly stage a rematch in a Pac-12 championship game.
If based on geography, it appears the Oregon and Washington schools and the Southern California and Arizona schools will be placed in the same division because of their close proximity. The key schools in dividing divisions will be the Bay Area schools and Colorado and Utah.
Pac-10 coaches have expressed another concern with the divisional format: many coaches recruit athletes in Southern California and use the annual road trip to the area to personally visit recruits. Under the new format, some schools will not visit the region during a given season.
Oregon head coach Chip Kelly is unconcerned with missing a trip to Southern California, according to the Register-Guard. Under his solution, the Ducks will be there every year anyway.
“We’ll make things easy — we’ll go to the Rose Bowl every year,” Kelly said. “It’s our job to win enough games every year to go to the Rose Bowl.”
It is also unclear if the Pac-10 will change its scheduling from its heralded round-robin format to a rotating schedule to accommodate a championship game. It seems likely a championship game will be added, but that will depend on how divisions are formed.
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Conference expansion not as big as rumors said
Daily Emerald
June 20, 2010
Ivar Vong
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