USC not happy about new Pac-10 divisions
The Pac-10 is set to vote on the new division for next season and already the University of Southern California’s athletic director Pat Haden is unhappy with the plan.
The Pac-10 will introduce two new teams net season with Colorado and Utah joining the fold. The addition of the two extra squads has caused the conference to go to a two division set-up, similar to the
system currently used by the Big 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Pac-10 athletic directors voted 7-5 to structure the divisions in the way that Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC and Utah will be in the first division, while Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford,
Washington and Washington State will be in the second division. The divisions clearly divide the teams geographically, with the southern teams in the first division and the northern teams in the second. This type of structure should cut down on travel costs
for each school.
Nevertheless, USC remains unhappy with the arrangement, as they claim to need games against the teams in Northern California. USC has long standing rivalries with both Stanford and Cal and are appealing
for annual contests against those schools.
Harden proposed his own version of the schedule.
“I proposed a 5-2-2 model that has us playing the five schools [in our division] every year and then have the Northern California schools as part of our regular two and then rotate the other two. We need
to play Stanford and Cal.”
Although this model suits USC, who has a great deal of money locked up in their program and therefore is not affected by travel costs, it may be more difficult for the smaller programs out of Colorado
and Utah.
Nonetheless, the divisions have not yet been ratified. The university’s presidents will vote on the divisions later in October.
Tags: