June 17, 2010
The University of Utah became the newest and 12th member of the Pacific-10 Conference today, accepting an invitation in a mid-day news conference on its Salt Lake City campus.
Utah follows the University of Colorado, which affiliated with the league last week. The two new members are now aligned with Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State in a league that likely will incorporate the new schools for competition in either 2011 or 2012.
Utah, a school of 28,000 students, was founded in 1850. It competes in 17 sports including football, women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, women's gymnastics men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, baseball, men's and women's skiiing, men's golf, women's cross country, softball, baseball and women's track and field.
Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott and Utah administrators announced the move at a 12 noon (Tucson time) news conference. The Pac-10 extended an official inviation yesterday and Utah was quick to accept.
UA athletics director Greg Byrne said, "We're obviously very excited to have Utah as part of the conference. It will be a great addition to have Salt Lake City and the surrounding media market and, certainly, it again shows that it's a different day and time for the Pac-10."
The school became the first in history to have a student-athlete selected No. 1 in both the NFL and NBA drafts in 2004-05, with quarterback Alex Smith and center Andrew Bogut the overall top choices.
Among many prominent Utah alumni are artificial heart pioneer Robert Jarvik, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner and speed-reading developer Evelyn Wood.
The Utes' primary athletic facilties are Rice-Eccles Stadium (45,634) and the Jon Huntsman Center (15,000).
Utah was a former colleague of the Arizona schools in the Western Athletic Conference from 1961 to 1978 (when UA and ASU left for the pac-10), and stayed in the WAC until 1998 when it became a charter member of the Mountain West Conference, its affiliation until this week. Earlier, Utah was a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (1910-37), the Big Seven Conference (1937-48) and the Skyline Conference (1949-61).
