[Farm93]

The idea is CLEARLY an attempt to get more Pac-10 teams into the LA market each year.  My guess is that the losers of the divisional alignment will be offered a chance to play in the first few attempts at this early season focus game.

My initial thought was why would these Pac-10 schools not just go with a home and home?  I can only guess that maybe OSU, WSU and Utah will continue to struggle to get home and home series against schools that get TV ratings and have big stadiums (Ohio State, Michigan, Tennessee, etc.).

For any hype effort to work those target visitors would need to get something too.  And an planned LA visit would offer that for them.  The appeal to a Michigan type might be easy to see too since they could recruit in the West and would not need to drag themselves or their alums to places with few tourist draws like Pullman, Corvallis  Those power programs would likely also see the weak Pac-10 teams as an easy neutral site win.

Using the logic noted above my guess would be that OSU, WSU and Utah may be short-changed in the LA rotation lottery.  Stanford, C.a.l and their opponents would get far less benefit from this deal, so I doubt this would be cooked up to pacify Stanford or C.a.l.  The game would offer no benefit for UCLA or USC or their opponents, so I doubt they would ever get in the game.

Perhaps not ironically, the Pac-10 teams that would benefit the most seem to be WSU, OSU, Utah and Colorado.  Hmmmm...  I think I see a "Northern" division forming with this LA focus game used as an alternative to the Scott promises to Colorado.

If any of that is true, then I hope this LA Pac-10 focus thing works out.

[Farm93]

The idea is CLEARLY an attempt to get more Pac-10 teams into the LA market each year.  My guess is that the losers of the divisional alignment will be offered a chance to play in the first few attempts at this early season focus game.

My initial thought was why would these Pac-10 schools not just go with a home and home?  I can only guess that maybe OSU, WSU and Utah will continue to struggle to get home and home series against schools that get TV ratings and have big stadiums (Ohio State, Michigan, Tennessee, etc.).

For any hype effort to work those target visitors would need to get something too.  And an planned LA visit would offer that for them.  The appeal to a Michigan type might be easy to see too since they could recruit in the West and would not need to drag themselves or their alums to places with few tourist draws like Pullman, Corvallis  Those power programs would likely also see the weak Pac-10 teams as an easy neutral site win.

Using the logic noted above my guess would be that OSU, WSU and Utah may be short-changed in the LA rotation lottery.  Stanford, C.a.l and their opponents would get far less benefit from this deal, so I doubt this would be cooked up to pacify Stanford or C.a.l.  The game would offer no benefit for UCLA or USC or their opponents, so I doubt they would ever get in the game.

Perhaps not ironically, the Pac-10 teams that would benefit the most seem to be WSU, OSU, Utah and Colorado.  Hmmmm...  I think I see a "Northern" division forming with this LA focus game used as an alternative to the Scott promises to Colorado.

If any of that is true, then I hope this LA Pac-10 focus thing works out.