We've had a huge amount of discussion about the colorado move to the PAC-10 (12) and for the most part apart from a little nostalgia regardign the former big-8 alums seem to be massively in favor. The rss feed on our board has picked up a ton of stuff as well as several CU bloggers. If you guys are inteested in a colorado perspective please stop by.

http://www.allbuffs.com

Honestly, I'm not sure why Colorado would turn down an offer to join the Pac 10. I see no reason why its series with Nebraska couldn't continue; for over a decade, FSU played 11 games a year, with 8 vs. the ACC, 1 vs. Florida, and 1 vs. Miami, and only one other game that changed every year or two. Colorado could play 8 Pac 10 games, 1 vs. Nebraska, 1 vs. C-State, and 2 others.

Anyway, I'm not aware of whether Colorado fans would fall apart if they couldn't play the Kansas schools, Missouri, or Iowa State. Surely they've survived not playing Oklahoma schools annually, and if I remember right, they're not crazy about the road games in Texas, other than in Austin.

Why wouldn't they trade that for games in Seattle, the Bay Area, LA, and Phoenix? Why wouldn't Colorado leave?

Really, I think it will be more a matter of whether the Pac 10 decides to go through with expansion than whether Colorado would be interested.

As for Utah, they'd join yesterday if they could. The Holy War with BYU would survive.

The biggest loser in all of this very easily would be the Mountain West.

That makes little to no sense. Why would BYU drop the revenue of athletics just because the Pac-10, a conference they are NOT in, decided NOT to invite them? It makes ZERO sense to throw away those millions of dollars over something thatr doesn't concern them.

As for an independent, that would be another money loser for them. Only Notre Dame has it's won TV deal for football and it's still only 2/3 what the Big Ten schools make each. BYU would be even less. But Notre Dame has the Big East basketball TV revenue too. BYU would still need a conference for non-football sports and the MWC wouldn't take them without football. So BYU would likely be in the Summit League for basketball.

This "rumor" just makes zero sense on all levels. It sounds more to me like a couple fans not wanting to see fellow MWC member Utah get a lucrative Pac-10 invite over them…and those fans making up a rumor to show their envy.

Hi John. The deal is just that BYU does not fit in as well as Utah into the Pac-10. Regarding academia, BYU just isn't on the same page with the other schools. There is also the big issue with games on Sundays…something BYU would need to change. You also have the obvious idealogical differences between BYU and the liberal universities that make up the Pac-10. But the biggest issue is simply markets. Symmetry means less now. It's about adding new markets. BYU and Utah are the same market. And if you're negotiating a new TV deal, 2 teams in the same market gives you no gain and just an extra mouth to feed.

Once again, in an unfortunate way, I see a parellel between the Big East & the Mountain West, only this time it's not about the quality of the teams themselves.

Football quality aside, TV ratings & attendance show that the Big East is the weakest of the 6 strong leagues, while the Mountain West is the strongest of the 5 weaker leagues. One league's footprint is adjacent to (and overlapping) the South & Midwest, while the other is adjacent to (and overlapping) the Pacific states and the Central states. The ACC did, and the Big Ten might, go after the strongest programs who were in an adjacent, weaker, but respected conference. The Pac 10, likewise, is capable of making the Moutain West the next Big East. Utah would leap at the opportunity. So would BYU if the Sunday issue could be worked out somehow. So would any other MWC team. And if the Pac 10 got Colorado, the Big 12 also would go directly for the best available from the Mountain West.

The way all this pans out reminds me of one of the reasons I can't stand pro baseball. An up-and-coming team like the Rays or the Twins starts to put a real threat towards the more resourceful Yankees & Red Sox. The richer teams can't force the smaller market teams to disband, just as the Pac 10 can't force the Mountain West to disappear. But the Yankees CAN afford to sign the Rays' best players to the highest contracts, and thus keep the smaller market teams from being a consistent threat. By swiping Utah and/or BYU, the Pac 10 can take the Mtn West's best assets for themselves and also keep the league from getting an autobid, thus keeping the pool of BCS revenue among six conferences, not 7.

All those are good points and ideas. The problem is that those AFKA 1-AA schools are probably not interested in going anywhere because they are so good at that level. The process would also be too long and it would probably be too late for the WAC. What MIGHT happen is that the WAC and the Mountain West might be forced to reconcile. It would be the only hope for some of those schools. The Mountain West has won. The WAC is just fighting to stay alive at this point.

Well, let's spin the wheel, again. If Utah and Colorado go to the Pac-10, then Boise State would likely go to the Mountain West. TCU would probably go to the Big XII. Arkansas is not leaving the SEC. That would leave the Mountain West with eight teams. It would be interesting to see if the Mountain West would then want to go to 12 teams. The Mountain West then might raid Conference USA for teams like Houston, SMU, and Tulsa. They then might raid the WAC for Fresno State. That would leave the WAC in a tenuous spot because they would not have enough teams to qualify as a conference. Lousiana Tech would go to Conference USA. The teams that are left might then be forced to re-join the Sun Belt because there would be no other place to go. Then there is the other re-alignment that could happen with the Big Ten going to 12 teams. Whoever the Big Ten selects would then create another set of dominoes. It is a race to 12 teams for every conference that plays AFKA 1-A football. The 2010s will be a decade that could re-shape college football for the next century or longer.