Pac 10

If you believe swirling reports, that 2014 Rose Bowl featuring Pacific 10 Conference champion Texas Tech versus Big Ten Conference champion Missouri on Channel 206 could really be something. Advertisers, you know, drool over the television markets in Lubbock and Columbia. If you believe the Rose Bowl game used to be a tradition unlike any other — except maybe the Masters — you missed the Rose Bowl joining the Bowl Championship Series in 1998 and then, one year, Washington State playing Oklahoma in Pasadena the same season USC and Iowa played in South Florida.

The questions now facing Pacific 10 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott will be more along the lines of "what's next?" instead of "who's next?" The University of Utah on Thursday officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10, giving the conference 12 teams and prompting Scott to declare "we're done" when asked about further expansion. A name change, a decision on internal alignment and the pursuit of a television network would be the next steps. The name change would occur "relatively soon," Scott said.

Arizona State ranks third nationally this week and USC is sixth, with UCLA checking in at No. 15 and Arizona at No. 25. Well, of course. The Pacific 10 Conference is always well represented in total offense. But wait . . . these are NCAA figures for defense. For offense, the Pac-10 has no team ranked in the top 25. USC, with all those question marks behind center, is No. 29. Oregon is No. 88, one spot ahead of Temple, and UCLA is 108th, 12 spots from dead last. Defenses have taken over.

The Pacific 10 Conference on Friday released its football schedule for 2011, when it will officially become the Pac-12 and hold its first conference championship game, set for Dec. 3. Newcomer Utah will be involved in a pair of firsts: The Utes are the first Pac-12 team to play, opening Sept. 1 at home against Montana State. Utah also meets USC at the Coliseum in the first conference game of the season, on Sept. 10. Among the highlights of the early 2011 nonconference season is Louisiana State at Oregon on Sept.

The Pacific 10 Conference is about to get bigger — probably much bigger — in the wake of what was reported Wednesday as Nebraska's soon-to-be-announced move to the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska's leaving the Big 12 Conference set off a chain reaction that is likely to result in Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Colorado heading west in what would be the largest league in major college sports. Pac-10 Conference officials declined to be interviewed about the deal because of the sensitive nature of negotiations, but a source with knowledge of the plan said, "It's locked and loaded."

Pacific 10 Conference officials may find a whole new meaning to the phrase "one and done." One team in the NCAA men's basketball tournament and done by the time the first round is in the books. It may sound like real March madness, but the unthinkable sits on the horizon as the conference's basketball reputation sinks quickly in the West this season. For the first time since 1987, the conference does not have a team in the top 25, a 431-week stretch that ended when Washington, billed as a flagship team, started taking on water.

Fall is in the air, and that means Pac-10 football. The powder blue- and tarnished cardinal-clad lads soon will embark to stadia across the West. As you follow, here are suggestions on things to see, do, sip, taste, hear or experience. Washington State versus USC, at Pullman, Sept. 25 Is Pullman called Siberia of the Pac-10 for its late-season weather or because it has the warmest fans in the conference? Yes. The every-campus-has-one spot in Pullman is the Coug : pub, grub, four generations of history (900 N.E. Colorado St.; [509]

Despite Washington's regular-season and postseason success in recent years, the Huskies were never a preseason pick to win the Pacific 10 Conference ? until now. With four starters back from a team that won the conference tournament and advanced to a regional semifinal last season, the Huskies were the runaway choice by media members, earning 33 of 35 first-place votes. "It's flattering," Huskies Coach Lorenzo Romar said Thursday at LA Live during Pac-10 media day. "I wish they would give us the conference championship because of the voting?

Both teams were playing for their seasons. UCLA guaranteed an extension, USC hopes it didn't get laid off. The Bruins beat their cross-town rival, 59-53, Saturday at the Galen Center in the semifinal of the State Farm Pac-10 women's tournament, advancing to today's title game against top-seeded Stanford. It will be UCLA's second appearance in the title game since the tournament started in 2002. The other came in 2006, also against Stanford, and the Bruins won that one in overtime.

Pacific 10 Conference and Rose Bowl officials are considering an annual kickoff game — maybe pitting the Pac-10 against the Big Ten — that would give the West Coast a stronger presence at the start of each college football season. With the conference borrowing the Pasadena stadium for its annual media day Thursday, officials said the idea is in the discussion stage. "The Pac-10 has a tradition of playing some really tough out-of-conference games early on," Commissioner Larry Scott said.