Utah Joins The Pac-10

Utah has been in the shadow of Brigham Young University for years and BYU alums never let them forget it or the national football title they won in 1984.

Now Utah fans have a big trump card to throw in whatever Ute-Cougar dissfest they engage in from now on: Membership in a BCS conference.

The University of Utah announced that they will be leaving the Mountain West Conference to begin playing in the Pacific-10 Conference in 2011. They join Colorado, who was extended an invitation to join the conference last week.

The Pac-10 now increases to 12 members, enough for them to split into two divisions and hold a conference championship game. The divisional setup has yet to be determined, but I think a North-South one would make the most sense.

You could have a Pac-12 North that would consist of Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, California and Stanford.

The Pac-12 South would consist of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, USC and UCLA with the winners of each division facing each other in a championship game that could be rotated between Denver, Glendale, AZ, Los Angeles, Seattle or the San Francisco Bay Area.

They'll have a few years to sort out the details, assuming that the Pac-10 is done with their eastward expansion for this round.