Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott held a news conference Thursday to announce the alignment changes to the conference. First off, the new alignment features a North and South division (for football only). Scott, who kept calling the conference “the new Pac-12,” says all the schools will have equal revenue sharing. He also mentioned that if revenue does not exceed $170 million in media rights in any year, UCLA and USC would receive a $2 million payment. Here are the football divisions that were voted on unanimously by the schools’ presidents:
PAC-12 NORTH: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, Stanford
PAC-12 SOUTH: USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah
Scott said the divisions were determined based on four factors: the importance of rivalry games, fan friendliness, geography, and competitive balance. Scott said they wanted to ensure the conferences were balanced evenly based on success the football programs have had in the conference.
Another very interesting point to note is that the conference championship game will be played on the home field of the team with the best conference record, not a neutral site. It does not appear that a tie-breaking system has been finalized, but head-to-head record will be the top tie-breaker, and possibly the BCS standings may be another.
Scott also announced how the football and basketball conference schedules will be formatted:
Football
- – There will be nine conference games five divisional, four cross-divisional)
– The four California schools will be locked in to play each other every year
– There will be a rotating system for two of the remaining four teams
Basketball
- – There will be 18 games like usual
– guaranteed home and home against traditional rival
– six rotating home games against six schools each year
– one game against the remaining four teams
