Colorado’s negotiated departure from the Big 12 puts the Buffaloes in the Pac-10 next year. That’s the good news for Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott. The bad news is, it’s a year earlier than he had planned.
“We’ve got a very full agenda right now,” he said. “It just got more full.”
In other words, he must speed up everything: decisions on the inaugural championship game, divisional alignment and revenue sharing. Here’s a look at where the Pac-10 stands as it looks toward 2011, when it becomes the Pac-12 with the addition of Colorado and Utah:
Divisions:
Colorado’s hope of landing in a South Division with the Arizona and Los Angeles schools may not happen. Scott said he’s considering a half-dozen models, and sources say the California schools are putting pressure on him to lump Colorado and fellow newcomer Utah with the Northwest schools — Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.
Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis told the Eugene Register-Guard that the league is favoring that model.
A number of factors are involved. Besides every school in the league wanting regular trips to Southern California for its rich recruiting grounds, the Bay Area and L.A. schools, minus UCLA, have played each other since before World War I.
And the Northwest schools are upset with the prospect of Colorado and Utah gravy training in with the L.A. schools in their first year in the league.
The man most upset in this process could end up being Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn, whose acceptance of a Pac-10 invitation was contingent on the Buffs playing games much closer to Colorado’s Southern California alumni base.
“Zipper” plans for alignment are also in the discussion. The zipper would split the Pac-10’s geographical arch-rivalries down the middle, but those rivals would play each other at season’s end. That way, every conference school would play at least one game vs. an L.A. school and keep its traditional rivalry game.
The zipper has many models, but one in particular is intriguing. Called the “Pac-10 Cooler” proposal, it would group Washington, Oregon, UCLA, California, Colorado and Arizona in one division. The other would have Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford, USC, Arizona State and Utah.
Besides playing every team in their own division, each team would play its most traditional rivals in the other division every year. For example, Washington and Oregon would play Washington State and Oregon State and UCLA and USC would play Stanford and Cal every year.
Then they’d play two other teams from the other division on a rotating basis.
Two problems, however: Scott favors geographical splits. Regardless of where you place the zipper, he says, schools will be upset.
Also, it runs the risk of traditional rivals playing in the regular-season finale — such as USC and UCLA — and then playing the next week in the league championship game. The Pac-10 will discuss divisional alignments at the presidents meeting in San Francisco on Oct. 21.
Championship game:
The Pac-12 will almost certainly have a championship football game. Scott isn’t sure where to play it, though. At one time, he favored the game being played in the stadium of the higher-ranked division champion.
However, the logistics of setting up a title game on only six days’ notice may not work.
Also, Oregon State, Washington State and Stanford all have stadiums with no more than 50,000 seats. That would cost the league a lot in revenue to have a title game at a smaller stadium. A designated site becomes more likely, such as Glendale, Ariz., or the Rose Bowl.
Scott said the title game will be discussed in the league athletic directors meetings Oct. 6-7.
Revenue sharing:
If the league goes with a North-South split, it might propose an equal TV distribution among all members, regardless of the number of TV appearances. Two years ago, USC made $11 million off television, while Washington State made $6.5 million.
To change the current distribution plan, there must be at least a 9-3 vote. UCLA and USC will surely vote against a change, because they make more TV appearances than other schools most years.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
