Larry Scott and the new Pac-12 have announced the structure of the new conference that will begin play in the 2011 athletic season. There weren't too many surprises outside of the news that the conference championship game will be at the home field of the team with the best conference record and the California schools getting "locked" cross-divisional yearly match-ups. These decisions were reached and decided upon unanimously, something that says a lot about the attitude of the conference going forward.
The Colorado Buffaloes and Utah Utes will become a official members of the Pac-12 on July 1st, 2011.
The Pac-12 conference will have equal revenue sharing amongst all schools going forward. This is fantastic news that puts the member institutions on an equal playing field. This is HUGE for the Buffs. Utah's revenue sharing will still be phased in over three years.
Starting in 2012 all media revenues will be shared equally. If it at any time that revenue figure drops below $120M, USC and UCLA will receive an extra stipend to make sure that those universities are realizing a similar level of growth to the others.
The divisions for football are as follows: The Pac-12 South will include USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. The Pac-12 will include Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, California, and Stanford.
Current rivalries amongst the schools will remain completely intact. In football, each team will play a nine game conference schedule. They will play each team in their division every year, and 4 from the other division. The northern and southern California teams will have "locked" cross-divisional games every single season. The 2011-12 conference schedules will be released in 30-45 days.
The football conference championship game will be played on the home field of the top seed between the two division winners. The top seed will be determined by overall conference records, with tiebreakers in place in case of a tie. USC is not eligible to play in the championship game in 2011 pending their current appeal.
There will be no division in any other sports. Men's and women's basketball will play an 18 game conference schedule with guaranteed rivalry games. Thoughts?