This Utah Fan's Avatar Says it All...

[CougarClaw]

Politics and religion could have come into their decision but typically money is the bottom line. The per school payout is always a huge factor in who conferences invite and whether schools will accept it.

you've conceded some ground which I appreciate in a lively debate. here's a few money considerations:

Larger fan base: Arguably BYU in Utah; definitely BYU nationally; especially within the Pac-10 footprint. The number of BYU fans in CA, AZ, OR and WA are in the tens if not hundreds of thousands who would fill away-games like the U or Colorado will not.
Larger Stadium: LES has 20k more seats the RES. that's quite a difference of annual ticket sales to add to the coffers.
TV studio: (Not that the Pac -10 would know anything about this since they never bothered to call Holmoe at any point) I see this as a significant selling point to help defray the cost and logistics behind game production and filming. And conference money is almost ALL TV money. BYU has a major TV studio, Utah has a hospital.
BYUTV - the potential of this existing channel in a sports setting is virtually unlimited. again. Utah has a hospital.
BCS bowls Utah has the dominant edge here in getting post-season BCS game money.
athletic budgets While BYU is heavily tithing-subsidized, none of the athletic program is. If I'm not mistaken, it's 100% home-grown out of football success and donations and currently has nicer facilities than the U. Since I don't know better, I'm going to assume that Utah's program does get tuition and/or endowment funding, which means the CougarClub boosters are more generous.

My numbers show BYU winning 4/5 possible money arguments. Did I miss any? Where do you see Utah coming out ahead here cause in my book, it's really not even close. (and don't even talk to me about Colorado, Utah is a much better fit than they are)

So let's pretend you agree. Here's the real question? if it's not money, what on earth could matter so much to an ultra-liberal, tree-huggy, gay-marrying, non-religious, Mormon-bashing community if it's not money?

[CougarClaw]

I think Utah deserves to be a PAC12 team. I believe BYU deserved the consideration because of success in every area that matters, but that doesn't diminsh the fact that I feel the Utah deserves what they achieved. It just sucks that we were denied because of our religious afiliation, but we can't control that. I still think that by far BYU is the classier organization, but hat's off to Utah on their opportunity.

I agree whole-heartedly. The same way that TCU, BYU, BSU also deserve that recognition.

Then when it appears that Utah took our place not on merit but because of religious bigotry it diminishes even their illustrious promotion. Give them credit for doing what we could not and they have been quite succesful. But also realize that this decision was not made in an academic or money vaccum. and where we seem to come out ahead in every way except BCS bowl wins, there seems to be one glaring reason left:

Mormon school.