Welcome to the Pac 12 Utes!
The first season of the Pac-12 will be a new experience for everyone involved. Never before has the Pacific Coast Conference contained this many teams. However, the 2011-2012 Pac-12 season will be specifically fresh for Utah since it will be their first season as a member of a BCS conference. Welcome to the big show gentlemen.
Utah had been one of the regular complainers, one of the criers of “unfair!” that the BCS conferences got automatic bids to the best bowls, that the non-BCS conference teams had little to no shot at playing in the championship game no matter how undefeated they went. Well now, instead of being an outsider looking in, Utah will be prepared to reap the benefits of such an arrangement in a conference that looks surprisingly wide open.
Perennial title contender USC has one more year to go on their post-season probation. Last year’s conference winner, Oregon, is going through some unpleasantness of their own in recent weeks in regards to recruitment organizations and illegal funds. Who knows what the future will hold for Chip Kelly and the Ducks. Meanwhile, here comes Utah, ready to make its mark on a new conference, a new level of competition.
This will, however, be no easy task. Whether Utah is actually good enough to compete here remains to be seen. It may take more than one season but will it become evident that Utah cannot recruit in this new landscape? Will all the kids that previously attended this university start looking elsewhere now that an 11-1 or 12-0 season won’t be likely? The Utes will be one of the best test cases we have ever been given as to whether the have-nots can compete, week after week, in a BCS conference.
Read the in-depth preview for Utah Football
