http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-pac-10-utah That's a pretty big loss for the Mountain West. They're definitely going to have to bring in Houston or Fresno State to fill that spot.
Good move for the Pac-10, and for Utah. They should do well in that conference. MWC should be okay, getting Boise St was big for them.
Good move by the Pac-10 (12?)... it'll be interesting to see what the MWC does now... Boise + Fresno?
It's a big blow for the conference and I don't know how they will recover. Adding Houston or Fresno won't soften the blow. The worst part of this is Utah gets to take all of it's accomplishments over the past 5 years with it. Adding Boise certainly helped but if the Big 12 gets denied in their quest to have a championship game with 10 teams we might lose more. Once the Big 12 stayed put I knew this would happen. I'm sure there are many conspiracies but IMO this was done to hurt the MWC not help the Pac 10.
I think it was done to help the Pac-10 and it just so happens that it hurt the MWC. Problem of the MWC is that their market is partly covered by the big 12, partly by the pac-10. I can imagine the Big 12 adding 2 MWC teams to get up to 12 again... who could they be?
Utah in the PAC-12 maybe now all their regular season accomplishments will mean something in terms of national championship. They had to go to a BCS conf. The way they were treated by the BCS the past few years was a joke. But I don't think the big 12 is going to breaks up the MWC anymore. My understanding is they are happy without a championship game.
All they have to do now is win out, basically beat the other team in one big game and they have a great shot at being undefeated. Without a championship game there is no risk of a rematch for the team that won the first time. See a few years ago.
It doesn't really help the Pac 10, all we heard from them was how Utah wouldn't have gone undefeated in any BCS conference and that they weren't that good. They don't bring anything in terms of a national following and TV audience ...they're not even the #1 team in their city. That would be BYU. The talk among the Big 12 fans was that TCU would be targetted and that believe it or not Air Force. It's a very strong academic institution, they field teams in nearly every sport and they would give the Big 12 a presence in Denver again (although AFA is 75 miles away)
The thing though is that it's all about money, the Big 12 will lose a lot of money should they not have a game. Also think about this, Jerry Jones just got the Big 12 title game. Do you think he's going to lose all that extra revenue that would come with Texas vs say Oklahoma in the title game? They'll either play with 10 or add 2 if the NCAA won't allow them to play it with 10.
I don't think this was meant to hurt the MWC. Pac-10 is looking to expand, and targetted a succesful program with something to prove and somewhat of a national following, in terms of what they've done. Now people will be tuning in to see if Utah can run the table in a tough conference.
what benefit does the Pac 10 get by hurting the MWC? the Pac 10 would have to have a clear benefit from hurting the MWC for that to make any sense. there is a pretty basic fact about reality and truth -- truth is independent of opinion. if Utah is a legitimate burgeoning college football power, they are regardless of whether the Pac 10 believed it or not in the past. and if they are, that helps the Pac 10. to say the Pac 10's opinion of Utah is more factual than how good Utah actually is violates any criteria for truth. and if they are, they bring just that -- another possible championship contender. I'm not sure how that doesn't help the Pac 10.
What benefit? Well for starters it's no secret that the MWC was on the verge of gaining access to the BCS and the millions of dollars that go along with it. When the MWC brought in Boise it all but assured it, without Utah it take a serious hit. Why would they or any of the other "exclusive" teams want to share that money with schools like Colorado St, New Mexico or Wyoming? The other thing is that if you look at the last few years the MWC has caught up to the Pac 10 in football and basketball. The Pac 10 may have had the better overall team (USC football and UCLA basketball) but the MWC was winning more games when the two conferences played each other. Just for example in 08 and 09 UCLA was beaten by a combined 113-6 by Utah and BYU, UNLV has won 3 straight games over Arizona in bball. The MWC was catching up in recruiting and starting to get some exposure on the East Coast by the talking heads. The best way to beat your competition is to eliminate it entirely. The Big 6 conferences have nothing to gain by the MWC gaining access to the party and millions of reasons to not want them in.
