The Pac-12 participation thread.

[PaloAltoCougar]

This guy's argument is pretty interesting, but a little silly in that it seems to assume a college program can filed a great team whenever it wants to. But if he's right, then Cougar fans should be cheering for Utah to do well this fall:

The Utah Utes are the most important team in college football

Apologies if already posted somewhere else.

I'm not proud of this, but my feelings about Utah's inaugural trip through the PAC are a function of the outcome of the game on September 17. If BYU wins, then I'd enjoy seeing Utah win its division and go on to bigger things. If BYU loses, I don't much care what Utah does, and wouldn't mind seeing it become a smoldering ruin by season's end. I realize the latter result wouldn't reflect well on BYU, but you'll have to appreciate my candor if not my logic.

[BoylenOver]

This guy's argument is pretty interesting, but a little silly in that it seems to assume a college program can filed a great team whenever it wants to. But if he's right, then Cougar fans should be cheering for Utah to do well this fall:

The Utah Utes are the most important team in college football

Apologies if already posted somewhere else.

Thanks for the link, LA. My favorite part of the article:

...Holding up Boise State, the new king of the MWC, next to Utah, the old king, is going to be a natural comparison.

The odd twist is the Utes themselves don’t care about any of this. They already have their golden ticket. If they win the Pac-12 they play in the Rose Bowl. If they go undefeated they play for a national championship. It doesn’t matter if it takes four years or 14 years or 40 years, Utah is set.

But Boise State cares. TCU also needs Utah to win. Interestingly enough, so does BYU. Any outsider program that wants its 12-0 record to be taken seriously needs the Utes to find big success in their new home.

[Uncle Ted]

This guy's argument is pretty interesting, but a little silly in that it seems to assume a college program can filed a great team whenever it wants to. But if he's right, then Cougar fans should be cheering for Utah to do well this fall:

The Utah Utes are the most important team in college football

Apologies if already posted somewhere else.

I hope that Utah wins every game with the exception of their 3rd one. Please don't let us down.

[ERCougar]

This is why the intensity of the rivalry will diminish a little. Rationally, BYU fans should be cheering for Utah to win every game but one (and vice versa). That won't happen completely, but there are plenty of fans who will do just that.

[Surfah]

This is why the intensity of the rivalry will diminish a little. Rationally, BYU fans should be cheering for Utah to win every game but one (and vice versa). That won't happen completely, but there are plenty of fans who will do just that.

That's no different though than years' past. Where SOS and computer scoring rule, we want all of our opponents to win every game but the one against us. That's why I don't think it will ever diminish much if any. It's still a church and state game. It's still ALUFs and Magic Happenings.

[ERCougar]

That's no different though than years' past. Where SOS and computer scoring rule, we want all of our opponents to win every game but the one against us. That's why I don't think it will ever diminish much if any. It's still a church and state game. It's still ALUFs and Magic Happenings.

Except for conference standings. I cheered for Utah in OOC games, but never in conference.

[LA Ute]

Another article on the same subject, this time from SI. One bit I liked:

Getting into the Pac-12, Whittingham said, was a process of at least 25 years of sustained growth. Now that the Utes have arrived they deserve a chance to build from their new platform. With the innate advantages of the Pac-12 -- enhanced recruiting, megabucks from Larry Scott's TV deals, and so on -- there's no reason to discount Utah's chances of eventually becoming an AQ power.

"Don't judge us on one game," Whittingham said. "Don't judge us on one season. Don't judge us on two or three seasons. You've got to take a look at us 10 years down the road and look back, and that will be able to get you the answer."

He's probably right. But snap judgments are going to be made anyway.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1UYc7v2F7

[LA Ute]

From the PAC-12 Plaza at Stanford Stadium:

[UtahDan]

From the PAC-12 Plaza at Stanford Stadium:

[LA Ute]

CEO hired for all of the PAC-12's new networks. Ted Miller:

Longtime sports media executive Gary Stevens has been hired as the head of the new Pac-12 Enterprises company.

According to the press release on Stevens' hire, that means he will be in charge of "the Pac-12 Networks, the Pac-12 Digital Network, and Pac-12 Properties, which will handle all sponsorship, licensing and event management [including the new Pac-12 Football Championship Game and Pac-12 Basketball Tournaments] for the Conference. He will also be responsible for creating a new integrated sales team across all of the new Conference owned media and event platforms, and for creating and executing a strategy to extend Pac-12 programming to international audiences, especially in the Pacific Rim."

So here's a guess he'll keep fairly busy.

Sounds like a fun job.

[Scorcho]

.

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=638741

Where does Utah's Athletic budget need to be in 5-10 years?

It will never be at a Tennessee or Auburn level and doesn't really need to be, but I think it needs to be on par with an Arizona and Colorado.

Utah has had some good success in hoops (well not latetly) and football considering being at the other end of the financial spectrum, but those days are over.

[LA Ute]

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/newrep...ote=1&p=638741

Where does Utah's Athletic budget need to be in 5-10 years?

It will never be at a Tennessee or Auburn level and doesn't really need to be, but I think it needs to be on par with an Arizona and Colorado.

Utah has had some good success in hoops (well not latetly) and football considering being at the other end of the financial spectrum, but those days are over.

Agreed. On our admission to the PAC-12 we were a couple of million dollars behind Washington State. That's a little misleading because we were almost debt-free at the time and some PAC schools are heavily burdened, but still, we have to step up our financial game.

[Scorcho]

.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/08/22/In-Depth/Budgets.aspx

sorry forgot the link of latest BCS Teams budgets

[LA Ute]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...h/Budgets.aspx

sorry forgot the link of latest BCS Teams budgets

Notably, Utah's budget is projected to increase at a much faster rate than any other school's other than Arizona's.

[LA Ute]

This is a pretty funny take on the rest of the teams in the PAC-12.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2016035115_pac28.html