When will it happen? That’s the question that really bugs me, and I’m sure it bugs most Ute fans and those concerned with the conference expansion discussion that has taken over college football. Whether it be in the next three weeks—yes, it could be that soon—or if it’s at the end of the year, the PAC-10 will announce their plans for conference expansion, said Larry Scott, commissioner of the PAC-10. I’m not worried about the decision of whether to expand or not, I feel the PAC-10 isn’t stupid—they’ll expand. Larry Scott was brought in as the commissioner of the PAC-10 for this reason, the college football landscape is changing.
The PAC-10 needs to expand to keep itself from getting left in the dust of college football. The Big 12, SEC, and ACC all bring in big bucks and large amounts of viewers for having a conference championship game, something that the PAC-10 lacks—and will continue to lack as long as it has less than the 12 required members needed to host a conference game—the PAC-10 currently has 10 teams.
If the PAC-10 were to choose and stay with their traditional conference and not expand, the conference would be missing out on lots of money opportunity. The rumors have already rumbled that the Big Ten plans to extend in order to add a championship game—is the PAC-10 honestly going to allow itself to become the underside of the BCS conferences? Absolutely not, the PAC-10 has hired Creative Artists Agency to explore expansion possibilities.
The PAC-10 has sealed lips about a definite decision, but rumors with legs have made their way into the ears of college football fans across the country. An expiring TV contract looms for the PAC-10, a conference looking to capitalize on a major deal—one with lots of cash. Adding a conference championship game will attract a larger TV deal, bringing in the wanted lump some of money. If the PAC-10 looks to go fishing for a top-of-the-line TV deal without as big of a moneymaking feature such as the conference championship game, it will not be catching anything bigger than goldfish. Birds are telling everyone that walks by that the TV deal is expected to be huge—along the lines of the $3 billion the SEC has with its TV deal—does a deal like this go to a conference who already struggles keeping up with the SEC, Big 12, and Big Ten?—absolutely not.
It’s no longer the question of if the PAC-10 will expand, it’s just a matter of when the conference will expand. The conference will announce its decision on expansion before the year’s end, Scott said. Dec. 31 marks the end of the calendar year, but the PAC-10’s fiscal year ends June 30—possibly Scott is using a play on words. Scott said before the year’s end, that doesn’t necessarily mean on the last day of the year. June 11, the start of the World Cup, often is believed as the day college football’s dominoes will fall—conferences across the country would shift for better or worse if the PAC-10 triggered expansion. If announcement were to not come before the start of the World Cup, the expansion announcement is likely to take place before the last day of the fiscal year, June 30.
If confirmation of expansion does not come before the beginning of July, everyone and anyone interested will have to hold on to their seats for up to six months.
Either way, expansion is going to happen, trust my word—word that comes from talking to people “in the know” of things.
I want to talk about the possibilities for Utah if the PAC-10 chooses against expanding, but I cannot justify doing so—it’s a waste of time due to the stupidity of the idea.
Utah is a good fit for the PAC-10—it’s bound to happen—just give it time. I have my sources that lead me to sit in the camp that Utah is joining the PAC-10—I’m not packing camp any time soon, I’m comfortable here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to comment--you don't even have to sign up!