The Pac-12 has released the 2012 football schedule. Once again, Utah will play the first game of the year, an opener against a lower-division foe, as Northern Colorado will visit Rice Eccles on the last Thursday of August. For the first time ever, all the games will be nationally televised this year.

One obvious highlight to the schedule is a Thursday night home game with USC, which will likely be featured on a prime ESPN or Fox channel. Utah and USC both have a bye week before the game, so there should be a lot of buildup coming into it.

Utah's schedule is as follows:

Thur., Aug. 30 - Northern Colorado at Utah

Sat. Sept. 8 - Utah at Utah State

Sat., Sept. 15 - BYU at Utah

Sat., Sept. 22 - Utah at Arizona State

Thurs., Oct. 4 - USC at Utah

Sat., Oct. 13 - Utah at UCLA

Sat., Oct. 20 - Utah at Oregon State

Sat., Oct. 27 - California at Utah

Sat., Nov. 3 - Washington State at Utah

Sat., Nov. 10 - Utah at Washington

Sat., Nov. 17 - Arizona at Utah

Fri., Nov. 23 - Utah at Colorado

The Pac-12 Championship Game will be Friday, Nov. 30

Saw this old Sports Illustrated article from 1990 linked on Pacific Takes, and it's a fascinating read. These were the days when the Southwest Conference was still a conference, Arkansas hadn't moved to the SEC, the Big 8 was playing in the Orange Bowl, Penn State had just moved to the Big 10, Colorado was flirting with the Pac-10 and the Big East didn't have a football conference. The BCS hadn't even been created yet.

And what was the worry then? A mass scramble of conference realignment, with super conferences that elevated some schools and left others behind. The Big 10's move to 11 schools did trigger some expansion from 8- and 10-team conferences to more 12-team conferences. Most of the independent football programs joined conferences, and some mass realignment left half of the SWC on the outside looking in. The Cotton Bowl lost its status as one of the game's premier bowls, and has never recovered.

How will the upheaval shake out this time around?

In Kiffin's comments to the media after USC's practice Thursday, he was asked whether or not Utah would be intimidated for this week's game. He starts out his comments being very complimentary:

You don't have a staff like they do that have won so many games, had so many ten-win seasons, and I think prior to last bowl have won seven bowl games in a row, including going into the Sugar Bowl and winning the Fiesta Bowl, I mean, there's going to be no intimidation factor.

He then goes on to say that USC didn't play Minnesota particularly well last week, and that it wasn't a game that would intimidate people. But then Kiffin's compliments turn back-handed:

They'll be ready to go. That's one of the things, really, that always happens at SC. For whatever reason the SC game tends to be people's Superbowl. So they'll be fired up just like Minnesota was last week.

Is Kiffin just a pompous jerk? Probably. But it's a disrespectful thing to say, and the type of thing that really gets Utah football players fired up. And it's also a symptom of the elitist attitude at USC that can really get the rest of the conference cheering against them.

It also sounds to me like a built-in excuse if Utah leaves the Coliseum with a win. Just like with Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the Utes will only win because the "superior" team is disinterested in the game.

Full video:

Last night the SEC voted unanimously to admit Texas A&M as the thirteenth team in their conference, on one condition: The Big 12 and all its individual schools must waive any legal rights to sue. This morning Florida president Bernie Machen, SEC board head (and former U of U president) indicated that the understanding everyone had was that the entire Big 12 had greenlighted Texas A&M leaving:

After receiving unanimous written assurance from the Big 12 on September 2 that the Southeastern Conference was free to accept Texas A&M to join as a new member, the presidents and chancellors of the SEC met last night with the intention of accepting the application of Texas A&M to be the newest member of the SEC.

Well, it seems that at least one Big 12 team (*cough, Baylor, cough, cough*) is strongly considering lawsuits against Texas A&M, the SEC, A&M president Mike Slive and Slive's children's children's children.

That doesn't jive with an earlier letter to the SEC from Dan Beebe, commissioner of the Big 12, dated September 2: 

The Big 12 and its members will not take any legal action for any possible claims against the SEC or its members relating to the departure of Texas A&M University from the Big 12 and the admission of Texas A&M into the SEC; provided, however, that such act by the SEC to admit Texas A&M is publicly confirmed by 5:00 p.m. (CDT) on September 8, 2011

Read all about it here and here.

In other news, John Wilner from Mercury news is saying that Texas has little or no desire to actually move to the Pac-12, and ESPN wants to keep the Big 12 together too. He says Texas' preferences, in order, would be:

1. Make fiscal and Longhorn Network concessions to Oklahoma to keep the Big 12 together.
2. If A&M and possibly Missouri go to the SEC, and the Oklahoma schools go to the Pac-12, then make a new Big 12 out of the remaining schools and some new ones (Wilner guesses Houston, SMU, Pittsburg and Louisville might be targets).
3. If that doesn't work, football independence, with Olympic sports possibly playing in the ACC.
4. Pac-12/16.

Wilner lists multiple reasons why Texas does not want to join the Pac-12. It's a very interesting read, available here.

Look for more maneuvering by ESPN, just like last year, to avoid super conferences. The larger the conferences are, the higher the risk of ESPN winning the media rights. If they were to lose out entirely on a Pac-16 deal, that's roughly one fourth of the high-value college sports content of the nation that goes to a competitor.

According to the University of Utah Athletics Department's Twitter Facebook feeds, Utah's Thursday game against Montana State will be broadcast live for free on UtahUtes.com.

While next year every football game will be broadcast on either an ESPN, Fox, or Pac-12 Network station, this year Utah's games will be available nationwide only when they are picked up as an option in the Pac-12's current contract. Utah's first game against FCS team Montana State will be broadcast locally by KJZZ. Many out-of-state (or out-of-nation) fans expected to have no options for viewing this game.

In Utah's first move of this kind, the KJZZ feed will be broadcast for free at UtahUtes.com. Steve Brown and Mike Norseth, who covered Utes games for KJZZ back in 2005, will be in the booth calling the game. Utah has not appeared on KJZZ since the Mountain West Conference media deal that ended all local broadcast rights was signed after the 2005 season.

Phil Steele recently released his 2011/2012 bowl projections, and the Utah Utes are absent from the list. While there is definite uncertainty about Utah's team this year and how they will perform in the Pac-12, many fans and media members expect Utah to finish the season with a winning record. Utah is just outside of the top 25 in some preseason polls and in the lower 20s in others. Pac-12 media picked Utah to finish 3rd in the Pac-12 South, and the Utes even picked up some votes to finish 1st. In my opinion, this just goes to show that prognosticators are all over the map on Utah this season, and aren't really sure what to expect.

Steele predicts the following Pac-12 bowl match-ups:

1. Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Nebraska - Pac-12 #1 vs. Big-10 #1
2. Alamo Bowl: Stanford vs. Oklahoma State - Pac-12 #2 vs. Big 12 #3
3. Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs. Texas Tech - Pac-12 #3 vs. Big 12 #5
4. Hyundai Sun Bowl: UCLA vs. Miami Fl. - Pac-12 #4 vs. ACC #4
5. Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon State vs. TCU - Pac-12 #5 vs MWC #1 (or in this case, MWC #2 since Boise State is projected to the Fiesta Bowl)
6. Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: California vs. Northwestern - Pac-12 #6 vs ACC or Army (at-large selection)

I found it interesting how high he predicted the Bruins to finish. It would appear Steele is confident Neuheisel will save his job this year.

If you want to go to home games without paying ridiculous scalper prices, the time to buy them is now. As in today, in the next few hours. I just got mine and they're going fast.

Single game tickets go on sale to the general public Monday morning. However, after talking to the ticket office I can tell you that there will undoubtedly be no tickets left to the Arizona State and Washington games, and tickets for the other games will go very quickly. You can buy tickets today by donating $100 to join the Crimson Club at the basic level. For a guy like me who really wanted tickets to every game, it was a no-brainer.

Order at: 801-581-UTIX (8849)

Utah's 2011 Home Schedule is as follows:

Montana State: 09/01/2011 6:00 PM
Washington: 10/1/2011 Time TBA
Arizona State: 10/8/2011 Time TBA
Oregon State: 10/29/2011 Time TBA
UCLA: 11/12/2011 Time TBA
Colorado: 11/25/2011 1:30 PM

Both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News are reporting the retirement of Utah defensive line coach John Pease. Pease had coached for almost 40 years, including almost 20 in the NFL, before retiring in 2005. He came out of retirement in 2009 to coach at his alma mater, where he has built a defensive line that rotates close to a dozen players and has been especially stout against the run this year. While the 67-year-old's announcement is not a surprise, he will surely be missed by the players, coaches and fans.

No schedule has been set for his replacement, and someone from the current coaching staff will likely fill his position on an interim basis for the bowl game. 

TCU will join the Big East in all sports beginning July 1, 2012, according to numerous news outlets. TCU continues its nomadic conference hopping, and will likely be a major football force in the Big East for the foreseeable future. The school has scheduled a press conference for 12 PM MST today, noting the topic is "a major announcement involving the TCU athletics program."

This is yet another blow to the Mountain West, which has seen its three best programs leave over the past six months. Look for the MWC to increase its courting of Hawaii football as it begins to look more and more like the WAC.

I don't know how he got the schedule, because I can't find any information for any other Pac-12 team, but Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times is reporting that Washington's schedule has been finalized and it includes a meeting with the Utes in Salt Lake on October 1. The teams they skip this year are UCLA and Arizona State.

Hopefully this means we will see a full Utah schedule shortly. Stay tuned!

Here's the full conference schedule for the Huskies:

Sept. 24 - Cal
Oct. 1 - at Utah
Oct. 15 - Colorado
Oct. 22 - at Stanford
Oct. 29 - Arizona
Nov. 5 - Oregon
Nov. 12 - at USC
Nov. 19 - at Oregon State
Nov. 26 - Washington State
Dec. 3 - Pac-12 championship game

Utah and BYU will play a home-and-home football series in 2011 and 2012 in mid-September, the University of Utah announced today. Men's basketball will play a four-year home-and-home series beginning next year, and rivalry games in other sports are still being negotiated.

As expected, Utah is dropping a game with Boise State to make room for the extra home game next year. What may not have been expected is that Utah is dropping the entire three-game series with Boise State and paying a $350,000 buyout. The Utes will also play a four-game series with Utah State from 2012-2015. As previously announced, Iowa State will not play a return game in Salt Lake City next year, paying Utah a $250,000 buyout in order to accommodate a nine-game Big Ten schedule. Utah will also play FCS (or Div 1AA, for those of you who, like me, think the FCS/FBS names are total crap) Montana State at home and at Pitt in 2011.

The full announcement from Utah athletics is available here.

Apparently the Big East is considering it, says the New York Post. Yeah, Texas is nowhere near the rest of the conference, but this could be a brilliant move in the battle for BCS relevance.

I can't help but think of the Mountain West mortally wounding it's main rival, the WAC, by stealing it's best teams in order to stay in the hunt for BCS-AQ status. If there's a conference in danger of losing it's automatic-qualifying status, it's the Big East, and by stealing one of the Mountain West's best football programs they could simultaneously beef up their own conference and weaken the nearest up-and-comer. It would also give the Big East a foothold for recruiting in Texas, a state that seems to be overflowing with football talent.

Will it happen? It's hard to say, but as we have seen this summer as teams have jumped conferences seemingly at the drop of a hat, it is really hard to turn down money in college athletics these days.

This sounds completely absurd, but I guess it's possible.

Utah State University turned down a membership invitation from the Mountain West Conference the same day that two other Western Athletic Conference members accepted them, according to people familiar with the situation.

Probably just someone in Hawaii trying to boost their conference image in the wake of these moves. "See, somebody loves Hawaii and the WAC!" But if Utah State is trusting BYU enough to try and ride their coattails outside the MWC, those guys are getting what they deserve.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/Utah_State_turned_down_Mountain_West_invitation_sources_say.html

*******Update*******

It looks like Utah State did, in fact, turn down a MWC invite, expecting Fresno State and Nevada to do the same. According to a press release from Utah State athletic director Scott Barnes, they were committed to their fellow WAC members and respectfully declined the Mountain West's overtures.

"At the point in time when Utah State was contacted by the MWC we had a binding agreement with the WAC and were well positioned with nine members, which included BYU. We were simply committed to uphold our agreement with fellow WAC members. We respectfully declined MWC interest and believed all WAC members would remain committed to our agreement,” Barnes said in his statment."

Now that's loyalty. I honestly hope Utah State lands on their feet, and I believe BYU should do all that they can to help in that regard.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/50139815-77/state-mwc-wac-invitation.html.csp

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700058563/Utah-State-football-Aggies-break-silence-on-conference-moves.html