I'm not sure we ever saw anything "official" from the Pac 10 on this issue. The conference definitely said it would not waive the 1-year of sitting out transfer requirement for its conference members (which the NCAA lifted for USC junior and seniors wishing to transfer). The speculation, which was reported as fact on Utah's message boards, was that CU and the Utes were being held to the Pac 10 standard by the conference.
Maybe that was reported in error? If you think about it, if a guy is leaving USC then he's leaving regardless of whether Colorado or Utah has a spot for him. So it's not like we're doing extra harm to the conference's flagship football program. And since we don't play in the conference in 2010, conference members do not have to compete against the seniors and only play the juniors for 1 season in 2011 -- same as they would if a junior transferred and sat out a year. So it doesn't hurt the flagship, doesn't give a competitive advantage against the conference, and only serves to potentially strengthen CU or Utah instead of that talent going elsewhere.
Seems to me that the Pac 10 would want a guy like Travon Patterson to choose CU over his other options. It's been semi-confirmed on Rivals (SD, an admin there checked a source and gave a thumbs up after Tyler Hansen's brother posted "Patterson to CU").