[yvonne]

If anything the Pac12 has already established that the Northern California pair are near powerless

How do you explain that "the weekenders" were maintained in the scheduling, despite School near Oakland and Stanford being in separate divisions from the University of South Central and UCLA? Or the allowance to continue ND later in the season in odd number years, despite Scott's desire to keep all OOC games in September for scheduling simplification? Clearly, we had some influence there. Or was that just the power of the University of South Central and UCLA in negotiations?

The weekenders were preserved because USC wanted to have them preserved. We had absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, having the weekenders while being in the North means we have a harder route to the Rose Bowl. We have to defeat the strong team in the North -- usually Oregon or Washington -- as well as USC in the regular season.

The demand to play ND at the end of the season was made on ND's part. They want to have a winter trip to the West Coast, and they want access to California recruits.

The Northwest schools lost out in the expansion because they don't play in SoCal every year, and we lose with the harder route to the Rose Bowl. The LA schools, or more specifically SC, had all the power, and all the concessions were made to suit the newcomers.

[yvonne]

If anything the Pac12 has already established that the Northern California pair are near powerless

How do you explain that "the weekenders" were maintained in the scheduling, despite School near Oakland and Stanford being in separate divisions from the University of South Central and UCLA? Or the allowance to continue ND later in the season in odd number years, despite Scott's desire to keep all OOC games in September for scheduling simplification? Clearly, we had some influence there. Or was that just the power of the University of South Central and UCLA in negotiations?

The weekenders were preserved because USC wanted to have them preserved. We had absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, having the weekenders while being in the North means we have a harder route to the Rose Bowl. We have to defeat the strong team in the North -- usually Oregon or Washington -- as well as USC in the regular season.

The demand to play ND at the end of the season was made on ND's part. They want to have a winter trip to the West Coast, and they want access to California recruits.

The Northwest schools lost out in the expansion because they don't play in SoCal every year, and we lose with the harder route to the Rose Bowl. The LA schools, or more specifically SC, had all the power, and all the concessions were made to suit the newcomers.