CSNBayArea.com reported Tuesday evening:
The Pacific-10 Conference will extend an invitation to the University of Utah to become the league’s 12th team, Comcast SportsNet has learned exclusively from sources close to the situation.
A press conference is expected to formalize the announcement on Wednesday.
Following the CSNBayArea.com report, Lya Wodraska of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reported that Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott denied that a Wednesday announcement was forthcoming:
A report is out that the Pac-10 will extend an invitation to Utah and a press conference is expected Wednesday. However, John Henderson from the Denver Post just spoke directly to Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott who denied the report.
In addition, MWC officials I just spoke with said they have not received any notification from Utah that it is leaving and Utah associate athletic director Liz Abel said there was “nothing new to report.”
Course, a lot of things that are true have been denied by a lot of people. Perhaps the Pac-10 just wants to make it official on its own terms.
This rumor could be wrong and right at the same time. Several sources have said the Pac-10 wants to move quickly in inviting the Utes, so maybe the offer isn’t a done deal now, but it could be by tomorrow.
The fun continues…
Often principals of these kind of reports play around semantics, so Scott’s denial doesn’t mean that Utah isn’t still on course for the Pac-10.
9:38 pm on June 15th, 2010
Right now if you are C-USA, go get TCU and BYU into the league, the Mountain West is all but dead. Nice job, Boise St.
10:52 pm on June 15th, 2010
can u fuksticks write about someting besides the pac 10 big 12 nobody cares ncaa football is a freakin joke til they get playoff system dont want to read about bcs
11:47 pm on June 15th, 2010
Hey, Bookfuk…..LOTS of people give a shit about this. College football is the #2 sport in this country behind the NFL. You claim you don’t care, yet you read the article and reply to it.
Brilliant. You’re a true intellectual giant.
12:10 am on June 16th, 2010
“Right now if you are C-USA, go get TCU and BYU into the league, the Mountain West is all but dead. Nice job, Boise St.”
Are you serious or just seriously retarded? The MWC should be raiding C-USA for Houston. The MWC was miles better than C-USA BEFORE they added Boise. Boise has an almost IDENTICAL resume to Utah (2 BCS Bowl wins in a 5 year span) and actually has a better record than Utah over the past 10 years.
Basically if Utah leaves, the MWC is right back where it started: With the only three non-BCS programs in the nation that are legitimate contenders. If BYU, TCU, and Boise went to the Big East next year they would be the top three finishers hands-down.
In fact, while the bottom of the MWC is worse than the Pac-10, it will be a harder conference to win than the Pac-10 next year because the top of the MWC is better. Who would you rather face in 2011 when Boise is in and Utah has another year to go in the MWC: BYU, TCU, BSU and Utah or a down USC, Oregon (barely beat a rebuilding Utah at home last year), Cal (lost to Utah in Poinsettia Bowl), and Oregon State (lost to BYU in Las Vegas Bowl) or Stanford?
The MWC belongs in the BCS even more so than some of the conferences currently in. C-USA is a joke.
Face it, C-USA is still the MWC’s little brother at best.
12:29 am on June 16th, 2010
So if the Pac Ten is deeper as you admit, and each conference has 3-4 good teams at the top how is the Mt West harder to win? You made the argument for the Pac Ten.
3:44 am on June 16th, 2010
Perhaps you missed me pointing out that the top of the MWC is better than the top of the PAC-10? Or where I mention the MWC teams perfomances against the top Pac 10 Teams? Then there’s also the fact that the MWC has owned the PAC-10 the past few years. The worst of the MWC is worse than the worst of the PAC 10 (for the most part), but the teams that suck in any conferences still suck. Who has the best bottom feeders is irrelevant. If the conference with the most mediocre teams was the hardest to win the Big Least would reign supreme. To win a Conference championship you must beat the best teams in a conference. Yeah, sure it would be much tougher to beat a sanctioned USC, Oregon, Cal and Oregon State than BYU, Utah, TCU, and Boise. (*holds back laugh*)
10 Year Congrove Computer Rankings:
Boise #3 - USC #7
TCU # 10 - Oregon #14
Utah #19 - Oregon State #23
BYU #30 - California #34
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvjN9_U3GhWodDBkOXQ4TDJyM1BtYXlXak5jaUVqMVE&hl=en#gid=0