Colorado very interested in the Pac 10

I have been to two games there and had a great time. I think it is a little more sophisticated than Eugene…but similar in some respects.

Texas would definitely be a power…in a scenario where USC is in one division and Texas is in another it could be a long time till other members see a Rose Bowl.

A lot of things would have to happen for Texas to join either the Big Ten or Pac Ten…one thing to remember is that they aren’t going anywhere without Texas A&M attached to the hip. So if they joined the Big Ten you are talking a 14-16 team league which would change the landscape of college football.

Honestly I think the time zone problem is too big to overcome. I think they stay with conferences in the Central and Eastern zones which means stick where they are….form something new…or join the Big Ten or SEC.

I think they are a real good fit.

I think New Mexico is a market to keep an eye on in the future because it has a lot of room to grow.

I just don’t see Boise ever fitting in because they have such a long way to go academically.

I’m not sure that Vegas is really that great of a market. How many people living there are “locals”, and how many are transfers from other areas with little to no loyalty towards the home school? I wonder whether Vegas would rate as high in the eyes of TV execs looking at ad revenue as the Denver and SLC areas…

Academically, UNLV does not stack up with the Pac-10 Universities. I don’t think it’s considered a major research institution either.

And on top of all that, I suspect the Pac-10 might be leery of the sports book gambling angle.

Colorado and Utah are by far the clear favorites among likely schools.

Las Vegas is a fast growing area but the population is pretty transient. It is actually a much smaller TV market than Salt Lake City and is on the same par as Albuquerque, New Mexico. The proximity to Los Angeles means the Pac 10 already owns this territory so like San Diego it makes little sense to expand there.

UNLV doesn’t have the type of academic reputation the Pac 10 desires. It would take decades for the school to build to that level. The athletic facilities aren’t much either.

It expands the conference, walls off the west coast, and adds the two largest media markets missing from the pac-10 footprint while still being geographically reasonable

The Pac-10 wouldn’t add a lot of TV revenue by adding San Diego State – they already get TV coverage there, and boosting SDSt. to Pac-10 status wouldn’t raise their viewership a whole lot. Besides, it’s generally accepted that the Cal schools aren’t interested in bringing in any additional schools in-state. SDSt. moving up to the Pac-10 would very likely boost the athletic prestige of that school enough for their programs to become competitive, and that just puts more competition for recruiting in SoCal.

Colorado & Utah are easily the best of the likely candidates.

They don’t fit from an acadmic standpoint and they average around 17,000 in attendance. The lack of an on campus stadium seals the deal even if they weren’t located less than 100 miles south of Los Angeles. The Pac 10 owns the market already so it makes no sense to go there.

It’s a market owned by the pac-10 already. It’s in the footprint of the conference and already belongs to the pac-10. We’re looking to expand to markets we don’t already own and adding in San Diego is pointless.

If you already own the market why go there?

SDSU doesn’t have their own stadium and they don’t have much of a following. If they were drawing 50,000 a game maybe you take a closer look. That being said the Pac 10 already owns that market.

I have been contemplating writing it for a week or so but held off because I keep hearing that there is more out there that is about to surface concerning Masoli other than the frat house caper. Seems that there was alos some bad behavior in December that hasn’t come out yet.

Anyway with the James deal going public today it seemed to me it was the right time to summarize what is going on in eugene.