Pac-10 Considering Two-Team Expansion

Sports News - February 9th, 2010 - Written By John Ritter

Ever since the Big Ten announced last month that it was considering expanding it's ranks to create a conference championship, rumor mills have been churning about the possible add-ins. And although those talks have cooled, others have heated up about other conference expansions.

The Pac-10 is at the front of that line now that commissioner Larry Scott has announced a plan that would pave the way for two teams to be added to the conference. He said the NCAA Football league officials have been looking into the options lately, and an expansion would be made within a year, if at all.

The league is hoping to finalize a deal before pushing forward with television and media contracts after 2012.

His term, "serious evaluation", means the issue will not be tossed aside like in the Big Ten, where is was thought the league was pursuing teams like Cincinnati and Missouri.

Of the possible teams to be added to the Pac-10, the two most prominent are Utah and Colorado.

Utah is a member of the Mountain West conference and has won a BCS game twice since 2004. It went 12-0 in 2008, but failed to garner any national championship consideration.

The other target school is Colorado, a member of the Big 12 that is farther west than any other team in it's conference.

Logistics make sense for both teams, and the Pac-10 would join the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Conference USA as conferences with a title game at the end of the year.

There hasn't been much parody in the pacific league since 2000 when Pete Carroll took over at USC. The Trojans won the regular-season title seven years in a row, although that streak was snapped in '09 when the Oregon Ducks finished no. 1.