Tons of good info and real interesting stuff. (After reading it, I decided to register at bleacherreport. I had thought that site was just a re-hash of the content at cuatthegame, but not any more.)
I would say, though, that I really don't like the idea of a double-conference with cooperative television and whatnot between the Pac and the Big 12. I just don't believe the conferences have enough in common to make it work. That said, follow the money. Sometimes it makes strange bedfellows.
Finally, I think if the Pac expands that it will come down to CU plus Utah. I'd assume that New Mexico is a backup plan to Utah and expansion doesn't happen at all without CU. (The Pac would love to get Texas, but I'd be shocked if it happened.)
Ideally, though, I'd love to see 14 teams in the Pac (CU, Utah, New Mexico and BYU). Then, put all the Mountain time zone teams together plus either UCLA or USC for one division. Then, give each divisional team an annual game with someone from the other division so that, for example, USC and UCLA play every year and maybe CU gets Stanford. 2 more cross-divisional games played every 3 years instead of back-to-back years with 4 years off. With this setup, you have nine conference games while playing 7 teams every season and you get at least 1 game with the other 6 teams every 3 years.
My proposal would look like this:
Pacific Division
- UCLA
- California
- Stanford
- Oregon
- Oregon State
- Washington
- Washington State
West Division
- Arizona
- Arizona State
- Colorado
- New Mexico
- BYU
- Utah
- USC
The major wrench in the works for this would be BYU, obviously. As Scotty pointed out in his blogs, it doubles up the SLC market so it repeats some of the problems the existing Pac configuration has caused for securing premium tv deals (in a way, they have 10 teams but only 5 markets). Add in the religious conservatism as a cultural misfit, the refusal to play on Sundays as a scheduling problem, the lack of academic freedom for professors, and the less prestigious ranking for graduate research... and BYU becomes a very tough sell for a unanimous vote of the current Pac members. One thing working in its favor that Scotty brought up when discussing Hawaii (and I hadn't considered)... the Pac wants the television sets in Hawaii, the Pacific Islands and even Asia. BYU, with the success of its missionary work in those areas, delivers better than maybe anyone (including Hawaii).
Once again, thanks Scotty. Lots of food for thought. :thumbsup: