Utah will do fine in a BCS conference. Their already good recruiting in California will just get better. My guess would be the Salt Lake City and Denver TV markets are bigger than Omaha/Lincoln (Nebraska to the Big Ten).... and both are probably larger than any TV market in the SEC West. I think it's a great fit for both Colorado and Utah. On a secondary note, Nebraska is a very good immediate fit for the Big Ten (I still think they'll add two eastern schools). Nebraska took a dip in the Callahan years, but it's a strong program with great facilities and rabid fans. From a population and TV market angle, there is no reason Nebraska should be a force in football. But using the same demographics, neither should Oklahoma or Alabama. The reason these schools stay among the elite over time is they are fully committed to the process of big time football.
Since the 70's, many affluent city people have been buying rural mountain property in Colorado and Utah for vacation homes or retirement ranches. They come from all over, but mostly from the west coast and the locals refer to all of them as "granolas" or "Californians".
LEAGUE EXPANSION: Utah bolts Mountain West Conference for Pac-10 - Sports - ReviewJournal.com announcement today? I've always liked the way the PAC 10 was set up... and Colorado/Utah fits in nicely. As most of you may know, in all PAC sports except football, the conference is paired in set of two: Wash/Wash St; Ore/Ore St; Cal/Stanford; USC/UCLA; Ariz/Ariz St and now Utah/Colo. In basketball, for example, the Ore/Ore St pair will travel to Arizona and play Ariz/Ariz St, playing on a Thursday, then reversing teams on a Saturday. The natural pairings should lead to a good rivalry between Utah and Colorado as time goes on.
I said the same thing. Dr. Pepper through the nose actually hurts worse than you think. Oh the irony if this were to happen.:lol:
Boise is getting enough respect now to possibly pull this off. especially now that they're in a tougher conference.
I wouldn't call the MWC minus Utah and possibly either BYU or TCU tougher than the WAC. I think Boise St may have maneuvered themselves into a worse position than they were. Those 3 are the only really tough schools in the conference, as far as football goes.
Utah is going to go from being the cream of the MWC to being the cellar dweller of the PAC 10 if they accept the invitation. I'm not convinced that Utah has the money to upgrade their facilities to be able to compete with the established schools of the PAC 10 in terms of recruiting.
I'm not so sure Pac-10 picking up Utah was really about media appeal. With Colorado, I can see how that would have interested the Pac-10. Denver is the 24th largest city in the US, and you've got a lot of Pac-10 alumni already living in that area. By picking up Colorado, the Pac 10 increases its ratings. But, Utah? Salt Lake City is the 126th largest city in the US so its not like Salt Lake City is really going to be that big bump in the ratings. And, assuming the Pac-10 wanted the TV ratings in Salt Lake City, then it would've made more sense to go after BYU. BYU has 10,000 more undergrads than Utah so BYU is going to have a larger alumni base and more fans from that. And, with that whole cultish Mormon affiliation, I'd also think that BYU would be more popular in Salt Lake City than Utah University. Instead, I think Utah was picked up because the Pac-10 needed a 12th team for a conference championship game.
