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..is that it is a topic of discussion for the Pac-10 meetings this coming summer.
Larry Scott answered the question last December, and based on what my friends at Oregon have told me, a number of ADs and schools are really pushing for expansion. Will it happen any time soon? Probably sooner than a lot of people would like to think - goodness gracious, what do you think Chris Hill has been doing this past 10 years but positioning us for an invite?
Utah is a logical target because...
1. A of lot Pac-10 ADs have been to Rice Eccles/Utah, and have seen our facilities, campus, and organization. Needless to say, we would have one of the best football stadiums in the conference and our campus would be in the Top-5 in the Pac-10, that's no joke. Once expanded and the visiting locker rooms remodeleded, we would have one of the best stadium in the Pac-10; and Salt Lake City is a nice destination.
2. It's cheap and easy to get in and out of Salt Lake, which means easy travel for fans. Travel consideration for fans is important to them even though Pac-10 fans don't travel as well as other BCS Conference's fans. Regardless, this is a plus for us.
3. Adding Utah would quell the playoff talk.
4. They get Utah gymnastics in the Pac-10 and we can do Sunday meets. It may hurt home attendance if we had a 2pm Sunday meet, but the Pac-10 would get a championship caliber program in to the mix right away.
5. Cancer Institute and Primary Children's. The Pac-10 would add its 3rd (I think - USC and Arizona are the other two) NCI designated cancer center to the conference. Adding Utah would bolster the medical and research profile of the conference. I mean these guys added ASU, which has....one of the TOP PARTY SCHOOLS IN THE NATION!!
6. Utah to the Pac-10 would RULE a million television sets in Utah. Who would you rather watch? BYU vs UNLV, or Utah vs USC? I don't care what kind of closet Zoob or Utah bandwagon fan you are, you are going to watch Utah vs. USC over the Zoob game.
T.V. Market Size:
Salt Lake City - 31
Tucson - 62
Spokane / Pullman - 75
Eugene / Corvallis - 119
7. There's a ton more pluses for Utah, but just walk around our campus and compare what you see there to what you see at Corvallis/Eugene/Pullman/Tempe/Seattle/Tu cson, and I will tell you that I am AMAZED at why we are NOT in that conference yet.
Why expand now? It's all about the Benjamins!!
1. Extra playing time and extension of the season for the Pac-10 and Big-10.
2. Money - A conference championship game in Seattle, Glendale, or San Francisco, to play in the Rose Bowl / National Championship game would be a money maker.
3. T.V. - The BCS / ESPN will probably push the conference to expand to get all of the BCS conference all having championship games to send to the BCS Bowl Games. The Pac-10/Big-12 would get a TON of more cash if they had a championship event that can be sold. That's a TWO games worth of commercial inventory that the network would get to play with.
4. Utah would be a perfect Pac-10 fit.
5. The real reason they are talking about this now is that 1) Larry Scott/Big-10 is pushing the agenda, and 2) Utah may not be there when they finally get off their duff and decided to expand. The Pac-10 is in REAL danger of potentially falling behind in the next five years, especially IF the MWC expands, adds Boise State, and gets in the mix with the BCS for a potential AQ (which won't happen). IF, and that's a big IF, the MWC gets an automatic, I don't think the Utes move to the Pac-10.
Other stuff
- With an invite, I think that the conference would stipulate a stadium expansion to increase per-game revenue. I think that it would be a no-brainer for Utah to get to a 70K stadium pretty fast because we would pack that place with a totally upgraded conference schedule. Our basketball facilities are adequate and I think we would get more people in their seats when the schedule is upgraded as well. All of the other facilities (baseball, women's soccer, etc.) would probably need some additions, especially baseball, but with more money at the gate, television, and bowl games, it can be easily done.
And finally, BYU WILL NOT be invited because BYU doesn't quite meet the research requirements, doesn't play on Sunday, and is a parochial school that a number of Pac-10 schools would never allow to be invited - hey, there are a lot of admins/students/faculty/boosters in UCLA, Cal, Stanford, and other Pac-10 schools who have issues with the Prop 8 thing and the LDS church support of it - among other things.
When the expansion happens, I would say that Colorado would get picked off with Utah; Arkansas or TCU would go to the Big-12 to replace Colorado. SDSU or any California-based school would be hard to invite because of the stadium issue and how incredibly difficult it is to get one built on California soil.
When the expansion happens and BYU doesn't get in to the Big-12, I think a rip in the zoob space time continuum may just suck BYU in to another warped dimension, much more weird than the one they occupy.
This is what I recall pre-Rose Bowl when I was hanging out with some Duck "insiders', so I kind of find it funny that the rumor is swirling around now.
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