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 Sunday, 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 an unprecedented 16-team conference.
In the end, however, Colorado was the only school who officially decided to join the Pac-10.This puts the Pac-10 at 11 teams, and it appears it will add at least one more school. A report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicates Mountain West Conference member Utah will join the Pac-10 today.
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.
It is unclear if the Big 12, having now only 10 teams, will pursue a name change to reflect its current status.
A potential Pac-12 could be divided into North and South divisions, with Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Colorado and Utah forming the North, and UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and Stanford forming the South.
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.
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.
It is also unclear if the Pac-10 will change its scheduling from its heralded round robin format to a rotating schedule to include a championship game.
