"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I have a print out of the official PAC-10 invitation PR statement in my office. Old logo and everything.
After the 04 season, I thought the PAC would be smart to invite Colorado and Utah, boost their footprint and grow beyond the coast. When it happened it was beyond awesome. Being at the Capitol building when Larry Scott formally invited the U was incredible.
The next summer, at the RedZone store for the midnight opening with PAC-12 gear was a carnival. Webmonkey and a bunch of others were there, it was electric.
Someone on another forum reminded me of the infamous Dick Harmon meltdown on ESPN at that time. What was ESPN thinking, bringing him on? Did they do ANY research into who he was?
'Utah is invited to the join the Pac-10, so lets bring on..........the biggest homer in the media of Utah's arch rival!'
I cant seem to find the clip. Too bad.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Does anyone have any inside info about how the invite came to be? My hunch was Chris Hill had a lot to do with it, getting CU interested, approaching the new PAC10 commissioner letting him know that CU would be on board, etc.
Or am I wrong? Was it entirely the PAC who started the process?
No inside info, but this is how I understand it went down:
Chris Hill had positioned Utah for the last 15 years to be ready when/if the PAC-10 decided to expand. That included building partnerships, scheduling them as much as we could, and keeping our financial house in order. He was constantly pushing the PAC-10 to expand, but they didn't want to. He made sure they knew we were there if they decided to.
The push to expand the PAC-10 came from Larry Scott when he became commissioner. He saw the PAC-10 as stagnant, which was borne out by the TV contract. Because the Big-12 was on fire, they originally wanted to try and poach Texas and Oklahoma from them along with 4 other teams, and make a PAC-16. Colorado was one of those schools and they jumped early. When the others didn't follow suit, the PAC-10 was in a position where they now had 11 and needed another. Utah was there and ready.
So, yeah, Utah was really a safety school, but I don't care. Hill did the work to put Utah in a position to take advantage of any opportunity that came along, and it worked.
This is what Hill told me (and many others in my presence, later): As soon as Larry Scott announced his interest in expanding (maybe even a little earlier, I don't recall) Chris called the Colorado AD on the phone and said, "Let's go talk to Larry Scott about our two schools joining the PAC." The two of them had stayed in touch and both knew that the other was interested in moving. They called Scott and met with him together in Walnut Creek a few days later. This was before the Oklahoma-Texas thing got going. So Hill did get CU and Utah on Scott's radar screen right away.
He later had no illusions about Utah's chances if Texas-Oklahoma moved to the PAC, so he was working on backup plans. While everything was going down in the USA he was in Paris on a long-planned vacation with his wife. He spent much of his time in France on the phone to the US. (Chris later made that up to his wife with another trip.) I know he was talking to Kansas and Kansas State about joining a reconfigured MWC if the Big 12 fell apart -- which would have happened if the Texas and Oklahoma schools had left. Crazy times, but it worked out for Utah.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell