The Accidental Tourist

Just an observation from the cheap seats — the cheapest, actually, since mine are free: College and pro sports are different animals. Even more so off the court/field than on.
How do I know this? Because Salt Lake won’t be on the bottom of the pile when it comes to Pac-12 road trips.
In the NBA, many players consider Salt Lake the worst stop in the league. Minimal night life, cold weather and obnoxious fans tend to annoy visiting players. If not considered the worst stop in the league, it’s down there with Sacramento and Milwaukee. In reality, the worst stop probably should be Detroit, Houston, Charlotte or Memphis (I haven’t been to Oklahoma City).
But that’s the way it goes.
Different strokes.
In college sports, though, there are a lot of backwoods towns that NBA players — and some college players — would hate. In the Pac-12, for instance, Salt Lake can’t be more unpopular than Pullman. Corvallis and Eugene are OK college towns, but small, wet and hard to get to. Tucson and Phoenix are golf course cities, nice in winter but insufferably hot in September.
I consider the Pac-12 a travel upgrade from the Mountain West, but not as much as one might think. (I always grade road trips on the vacationability of the town, not the actual games.) My Pac-12 trips will include nice ones to L.A., the Bay Area and Seattle. But I’ll be giving up some good trips. Las Vegas isn’t my favorite place (it, too, is blazing in September), but but hey, where else can you catch Jimmy Buffett or the Blue Man Group on an off night?
I know I’m in the minority, but Albuquerque is a trip I always liked. Something about all that adobe and turquoise. Besides, I’m a sucker for the balloon festival. I’m giving the Duke City a B as a road trip. Air Force and CSU are OK, typical college trips, but nothing I’ll miss that much.
Losing San Diego, though, is almost a deal breaker for me.
First, I lost Hawaii when the local teams split from the WAC. Now I’m losing San Diego.
How much pain can one person endure?

SAN DIEGO

Typically, nobody comes to Aztec games, but what do I care?
I’m there for the swordfish.
Wyoming (surprise!) is a trip I can skip. It hasn’t always been bad, but it’s hard to reach and dangerous in winter. The Fort Worth area (TCU) doesn’t do much for me, but hey, Texas doesn’t do much for me.
And Provo?
It’s in the neighborhood. If it’s not going anywhere, neither am I.

Here’s how I rate the MWC and Pac-10 road trips (not counting Utah and BYU):

Mountain West

1.San Diego State
2.New Mexico
3.UNLV
4.Colorado State
5.Air Force
6.TCU
7. Wyoming

Pac-12

1.Washington
2.UCLA/USC
3.Stanford/Cal
4.ASU
5.Arizona
6.Colorado
7.Oregon State
8.Oregon (Sorry, I don’t wear Nikes.)
9. Washington State

How do you rate the MWC and Pac-10/12 cities?