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Colorado moving to the Pac-10 is little more than speculation right now. But the Denver Post's John Henderson is reading between the lines a little bit and the move seems to make a lot of sense. "Looking at it from a business perspective, first and foremost, what's going to add value: TV, a football championship game," [Pac-10 commissioner Larry] Scott said in a phone interview. "But there does need to be compatibility to our conference, and of paramount importance is academic compatibility. But there are other important issues such as athletic compatibility and geographic compatibility when you look at costs.
"This isn't just football."
Now consider the following factors:"This isn't just football."
- Colorado would bring the Denver TV market with it.
- Colorado is a member of the Association of American Universities with UCLA, USC, Cal and Washington.
- Colorado faculty members have more joint research projects with Pac-10 schools than with Big 12 schools.
- Colorado's biggest alumni base outside of Colorado: California.
That's sound math.
Henderson takes a nice, wide look at the issue and makes a convincing case for Colorado as the next member of the Pac-10, only adding fuel to the slowly building fire of conference realignment.
He also notes that the Pac-10 hired Scott after he acquired an $88 million sponsorship deal with Sony Ericsson for women's tennis and the largest television contract in the history of the sport.
He'll be looking to do something similar with the conference, and he's assembled a team to help him do it. It makes sense for Colorado to become part of those plans.
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