After months of speculation of a zipper or that pod system the soon to be Pac-12 has decided on a North and South split that will look like this:
North:
Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, and Stanford
South:
Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA, Utah, and Colorado
The Northern California schools and Southern California schools were not too happy with this, but the Northern schools will be guaranteed a game in Southern California every year.
Having Utah in the southern division is huge, and not just because of the recruiting item. USC can not go to post season play next year and it will take a few more years for them to build back up to full strength after their scholarship loss.
Utah could seriously be in contention for the South title in year one, and perhaps host the title game since that will be played on camp
Here are the particulars:
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One note on Utah is that they will gradually move into equal revenue sharing and will be a full equal partner in revenue sharing starting in 2014.
- Equal revenue sharing after the conference's total revenue reaches the threshold of $170 million. Until then, SC and UCLA will make $2 million more than the other schools. Larry Scott believes this threshold will be met rather quickly when you factor in the television deals and the upcoming conference championship game.
- The creation of a conference championship. While the conference continues to nail down a location, Pac-12 officials will announce that the highest rated seed (and tie-breaker winner if needed) will host the conference championship game in 2011.
- A nine game conference schedule. Here is the press conference of the announcement: