BREAKING: Utah officially in the Pac; commence division alignment war

by Smooty on Jun 16, 2010 2:58 PM PDT in News

The Pac-10 has announced that Utah will be the 12th member of the Pac-10, Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star, reports.

Now, the division alignment debate begins.

Everyone will be gunning to be included in the SoCal division, while I'm sure everyone would like to avoid the Utah/Colorado side. Utah has a recent history of busting major BCS programs, and Colorado, well Colorado just has not been very good lately.

This move paves the way for a Pac-10 television network ($$$) and a conference championship game ($$$). But, this is the NCAA, and everything is about the athletes and the academics, right? Right.

All in all, this seems to be a good move for the Pac-10, after being spurned by Texas/Big 12 South. The new alignment will allow the Pac-10 to compete with the Big Ten and SEC on the field and in the bank accounts. The latter of which, the Pac-10 has failed at miserably as of late.

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if they invited

Utah without having made a decision on alignment, scheduling etc., then they’re effing idiots. No idea what the decision is, but it had to have been made already.

Mr Pac Ten's Blog - 2007 2008 2009

by MrPacTen on Jun 16, 2010 3:14 PM PDT reply actions

division decision pushed back until end of July

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/23311/how-the-pac-10-will-be-divided

Translation: they had made a decision, then realized it wasn’t going to fly, and are only now going to do full due diligence. Sigh… this is exactly the sort of crap that made me opposed to adding Utah; juggling everyone’s needs is just going to be a big mess :(

Mr Pac Ten's Blog - 2007 2008 2009

by MrPacTen on Jun 17, 2010 9:41 PM PDT up reply actions

Not Yet

they’ve only been invited, they haven’t made a decision, though they probably will join, you’re still posting an untrue story until the accept the invitation.

by Mark_Husker on Jun 16, 2010 3:19 PM PDT reply actions

Just out of curiosity...

you DO understand the difference between a blog and a newspaper, right?

by TiltingRight on Jun 17, 2010 2:00 AM PDT up reply actions

Ted Miller reporting...

North/South Divisions: Arizona schools, Utah, Colorado, USC and UCLA in the South. Everyone else up North.

by Yell-O!!! on Jun 16, 2010 5:53 PM PDT reply actions

We are in. The announcement will be at rice-eccles stadium thursday or friday.

I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. Craig Thompson just might end up being a savvy guy. Hell is just a word, the reality is much much worse." Event Horizon". Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean, I mean plumb, mad dog mean. cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live or win. That's just the way it is. "The Outlaw Josey Wales". To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf. "Training Day". Rashad will beat Rua b/c it's a bad matchup for him. 2/1 odds. Josh Koscheck will dethrone Gsp and win the welterweight title. 2.9/1 odds on that too. Peace.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Jun 16, 2010 6:00 PM PDT up reply actions

Hey all

Looking forward to playing in AZ.

by daedalus17 on Jun 17, 2010 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions

today's the day. i personally invited the byu marching band to play at our ceremony.

no crying brigham young university. lol.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Jun 17, 2010 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions

This is the best alignment for most interests involved.

I’m not at all a fan of the “zipper” (like the ACC) divisional alignment, and as a WSU fan, from a recruiting standpoint, I didn’t want to drop to one visit per year to CA….

I’m a little surprised the Norcal schools were willing to be broken up from the Socal schools, but honestly, I think this is the best of the discussed alignments.

by TiltingRight on Jun 17, 2010 2:04 AM PDT up reply actions

Best for the conference as a whole

That should be the motivator, and while some of the north schools won’t be fans, they still get everyone 2/3 years, and if you make the decision to try and make one killer division while screwing the other division, you get another Big 12 fiasco, and the conference implodes in 10 years.

by jim2 on Jun 17, 2010 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions

I would have prefered the CA schools with AZ, or the CA schools with the new blood. You just can’t drive from Northern California to Oregon and Washington.

by Glanko on Jun 17, 2010 9:49 AM PDT reply actions

A Good Read

http://www.uwdawgpound.com/2010/6/17/1522611/smoldering-expansion-questions

by astanfi on Jun 17, 2010 9:53 AM PDT reply actions

Avoid being another Big 12

The North/South Split, i.e. Utah, CU, AZ, ASU, UCLA, USC in the South and Stan, Cal, OU, OSU, WA, WSU is not perfect, and no doubt the teams from the North will not be fans, but this is the choice best for the conference. They spread the wealth of the California schools, and don’t lump the less desireable schools all in the same division.

If they lump good v. bad, then you see the conference implode in 10 years just like the Big 12 North and South divisions. Sure it benefits one group of 6 really well, but then you get a lot of problems if you don’t try to represent the conference as a whole.

by jim2 on Jun 17, 2010 3:53 PM PDT reply actions

The Split

The biggest problem you’re going to see is that the California schools are going to oppose a North/South split as listed. SC, Cal, Stanford and UCLA have a huge history and around 100 games played between each team. To throw that away would be a ridiculous dagger in terms of tradition.

I think the setup that will please everyone most is the zipper method, as follows:
5 games against the division.
4 games against the opposing division, with one guaranteed game against the rival and one guaranteed game against a second non-division foe every year.

Divisions could just be simple west/east as others have mentioned, so it’d be Washington, Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Utah and ASU in one.

U of A would play the division foes, ASU, a guaranteed team of their choice and two non-division teams. Perhaps a regular yearly series against Utah, given Arizona’s exciting Salt Lake City connections. UofA/Utah would make for a good new rivalry.

SC, for example, would play UCLA and Stanford each year.

Rodney Sermons 4 Lyfe

by Brad Otton Is My Homeboy on Jun 17, 2010 9:45 PM PDT reply actions

With this you increase travel costs though, as well as making it possible that the rivalry game is a glorified scrimmage before a rematch in the conference championship game.

I think N/S is better, especially if you lock in the Division rival and a non-division rival game. I’d also keep only 8 conference games to maximize bowl eligibility (including that elusive 2nd BCS spot).

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by Hockey Beard in SLC on Jun 17, 2010 11:23 PM PDT up reply actions