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Somebody with a bigger brain than mine once said, “Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.” Well, with Utes everywhere grinning huge grins these past few days, Pac-10 grins, a lot of Cougars are feeling lonely, left out, greener than green, bluer than blue, and something even worse — jobbed. What’s good for BYU’s rival is devastating for them. For Utah, what’s good has never been greater. Fresh off their invitation into the Pac-10 on Thursday, including a stunning celebration/news conference at Rice-Eccles Stadium, at which a dream became a reality, the Utes blew straight past happy...

PROVO — Over the past 30 years, BYU has won a national championship in football, expanded its stadium to 64,000 seats... Yet, when it comes to conference realignment, the Cougars remain on the outside, looking in. It's arch-rival Utah, not BYU, heading to the greener (read: money) pastures of the Pac-10. The man who served as BYU's athletic director from 1976-93, Glen Tuckett, remembers a time when the Pac-10 — at least on an athletic director level — coveted the Cougars. Adding the Utes didn't seem like even a remote possibility. "In those days, Utah was struggling. They weren't a...

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah accepted an invitation to become the 12th member of the newly expanded Pac-10 Conference on Thursday. "Today is an absolutely great day to be a Ute," athletic director Chris Hill said before he was interrupted by applause during a news conference at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Utah is poised to become the 12th member of the Pac-10 as the conference quickly pivoted Wednesday to invite the Utes after being turned down by Texas and four other members of the Big 12 two days ago. Utah officials did not immediately say whether the invitation would be accepted, but it would be shocking if the Utes didn't leave the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-10.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott says Texas has turned down an invitation to leave the Big 12 and join his conference.

The Big 12 Conference will stay alive after all 10 remaining teams have agreed to remain members, according to multiple reports late this afternoon. Texas turned down an invitation from the Pacific-10 Conference, announcing in a university statement late this afternoon that the Longhorns will continue competing in the Big 12. Texas president William Powers Jr. and athletic director DeLoss Dodds will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The Texas Board of Regents meeting set for Tuesday was cancelled. Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/14/2015957/reports-texas-may-commit-to-staying.html#ixzz0qsNXCju4

The departure of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the Pac-10 is imminent, four sources within the Big 12 said Monday. One source said commissioner Dan Beebe's last-minute plan to save the conference has "zero" chance to succeed. Another source said it is "very unlikely" to succeed.

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon was dealing with a world consisting of three rival superpowers: the US, the Soviet Union and China. He and his adviser Henry Kissinger had a plan for how to get the best deals for the US — play the other two powers against one another. “There’s me, there’s you and there’s the other guy.” The practice is now known as triangular diplomacy and it seems that SEC commissioner Mike Slive might know a little something about it. Here’s why: * The SEC has amazingly pushed, pleaded, baited and cajoled Texas A&M into —...

College conference realignment isn't taking the weekend off. Two media sources -- Jackson, Miss., television station WJTV and A&M blogger/radio host Billy Liucci -- report that Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive is meeting with Texas A&M officials today in College Station, Texas. Meanwhile, The Oklahoman newspaper reports Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott met today with officials from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City, presumably to invite them to join his conference. Scott also plans to meet with Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech, according to the newspaper. Sporting News' Matt Hayes reported Thursday that the SEC will likely only expand...

The Big 12 Conference’s possible erosion has begun. The Pac-10 Conference announced Thursday that the University of Colorado has accepted an invitation to join the league, the first change in the conference in 32 years and the first in what could be sea change in college athletics. “The University of Colorado is a perfect match — academically and athletically — with the Pac-10,” said Colorado President Bruce Benson. Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner who has been in office 11 months, called it a “historic moment” for the conference. “The Pac-10 is poised for tremendous growth,” he said. “The University of...

The Pac-10 conference announced Thursday that the University of Colorado has agreed to leave the Big 12 to join its conference. "This is an historic moment for the Conference, as the Pac-10 is poised for tremendous growth," commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. "The University of Colorado is a great fit for the Conference both academically and athletically and we are incredibly excited to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10.

The Big 12 appears to be dead. A source close to the Nebraska Board of Regents told Orangebloods.com the regents informally agreed Wednesday to move to the Big Ten and that a formal announcement Nebraska is leaving will come Friday. Sources close to Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have suggested to Orangebloods.com over the last week that if Nebraska leaves, the Big 12 can't be saved. Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds and president Williams Powers gathered UT coaches today at 2 p.m. CT to tell them they did everything they could to save the Big 12 but that they...

The tagline of Kenneth Starr's guest column in Monday's editions of the Waco Herald-Tribune said it all. Ken Starr assumed the presidency of Baylor University last Tuesday. Starr must assume we were born last Tuesday. Otherwise, he wouldn't have called a press conference Monday to declare Baylor's undying love for the Big 12 when, in reality, he wanted to get his school's name into the media sphere to ensure Baylor isn't left in the conference if the rest of the south division members defect to the Pac-10. Starr is new at his job, so we shouldn't grill him too hard...

PAC-10 Ok's Expansion SAN FRANCISCO -- Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott emerged from the final day of conference meetings Sunday and announced that university presidents and chancellors have given him all the authority he needs to expand the Pac-10. "What direction that process takes still could go in different directions, everything from remaining as we are as a Pac-10 that's got some very bright days ahead of it to a bigger conference footprint," Scott said. "I have the authority to take it in different directions, depending on various scenarios and discussions we're going to have." Scott wouldn't give any timeframe for...

With realignment seemingly on the way to major college football, there seems to be a new and intriguing alignment thrown out daily. The latest came Thursday in the form of a report from Orangebloods.com (a Rivals.com member), which said the Pac-10 is prepared to offer membership to six Big 12 schools to form a mega 16-team conference that would cover the western half of the country and break into seven of the nation's top 20 television markets. According to the report, the Pac-10 is all but ready to extend invitations to Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and...

LOS ANGELES -- Malcolm Smith returned one of Southern California's three interceptions 62 yards for an early touchdown, and the Trojans (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) regained their defensive pride while maintaining their city dominance with a 28-7 victory over UCLA on Saturday night. Matt Barkley's 48-yard touchdown pass to Damian Williams with 44 seconds left led to an ebullient USC celebration that nearly set off an all-out fight between the teams in their 79th crosstown showdown.

This is the year that someone breaks through and ends USC’s six-year choke hold on the Pac-10 title. Yeah, right. Sure, the Trojans have shown signs of vulnerability the past two seasons, losing head-scratchers to Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford, but when a November surge is needed, they always deliver. Plus, no one fills holes in a depth chart faster than the Men of Troy. So, as USC feeds the NFL with a new crop of talent, there are a bunch of young players, likeDE Everson Griffen, RB Joe McKnight and QB Mark Sanchez, who are poised for stardom …and...

Whether or not you like the Pac-10, you have to give the left coast league its just due for being the BCS conference that does the most for college football Beyond getting it right by scheduling all the teams to play each other (wake up Big Ten: figure out how to make this happen), it does the best job of pushing itself out of conference. Outside of Arizona (who’s making a respectable trip to BYU), every Pac-10 team plays a non-conference game against a BCS-league team or Notre Dame. And we’re not talking about showdowns with Duke and Baylor here....

LOS ANGELES -- Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, who supports bowl games and opposes a playoff system, told Sporting News Thursday his league will walk away from the BCS if the plus-one playoff model becomes a reality. This offseason alone, conference commissioners from the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big East have said they are intrigued by the plus-one model -- which would provide a championship game between the two highest-ranked teams after the bowl games -- and might be open to implementing such a plan when the new television contract is negotiated sometime over the next year. The model, however,...

Cal didn't win a Pacific-10 Conference title, but it did garner two major awards Monday. Junior tailback Marshawn Lynch was named league offensive player of the year, and senior cornerback Daymeion Hughes was named defensive player of the year. The awards were selected by conference coaches. Lynch has rushed for 1,178 yards, and his 107.1 average per game leads the conference. He is the first Cal player to win the offensive award since quarterback Mike Pawlawski in 1991. Hughes leads the conference with eight interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns. He also leads the conference in passes defensed with 19,...