Utah-Colorado: A Rivalry on the Way
Some final notes on this week’s State of the Utes media luncheon with Utah A.D. Chris Hill…
It still hasn’t been determined what Pac-12 division the Utes will play in, but most of the scenarios have them in a Southern Division with UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado. Hill said whatever the division, the schools have agreed not to play any non-conference games later than the third week of September.
That’s interesting, because it means Utah vs. BYU won’t be played in November. Some have suggested Utah and BYU play one another in football during conference weekend, a traditional time for USU and BYU to play. But that is too late in the season for Utah to play a non-conference game.
One thing seems certain: Utah and Colorado are bound to become division rivals. Hill said he had seen numerous mock-ups of what the league might look like after the Utes and Buffs join the conference. “We have Colorado at home in the last game of the year in every model that includes Utah,” said Hill.
As for non-conference scheduling in both basketball and football, Hill said his school must “take a look and say are we different now?”
UTAH STATE VS. UTAH
He went on to say “would a Pac-10 team have a home-and-home with a Big Sky school?”
In other words, don’t hold your breath on the annual game with Weber State, or maybe even Utah State.
As for televising of games, Hill said “not every game is on TV for all the leagues” right now, and he can’t guarantee every Utah game will be accessible. He added that last week’s Oregon-Washington State game wasn’t televised.
In the past, games that weren’t picked up nationally were added by local stations, but the Pac-12 will control nearly all of what is televised. Hence, don’t plan on catching every Ute game on TV in the future.
“Fans here got used to it, but that isn’t how it is in every league,” Hill said.
He added that there will likely be Thursday and Friday games in the Pac-12 to accommodate TV scheduling.