Report: Pac-10 Will Create A North And South Division For 2011 Season

With Colorado jumping ship early and making the Pac-10 the Pac-12 in 2011, the conference was quickly faced with the task of creating divisions.

While the schools’ athletic directors aren’t planning to meet until Oct. 6-7, a time when they will discuss just how to split up the 12 teams, Chip Brown (of course) is already reporting that the “Pac-10 North division will be Was, WSU, Ore, Ore St., CU and Utah. South will be Cali and Arizona schools.” Or, this:

North Division
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Colorado
Utah

South Division
Stanford
California
USC
UCLA
Arizona
Arizona State

While that certainly seems to be the easiest form of alignment, there are two other options still being discussed apparently. One is the “zipper concept,” which would put natural rivals in opposite divisions. The other is the “pod” scheduling idea, which would still use two, six-team divisions, split on the north/south line, but would rotate the yearly matchups.

Pod 1: NW schools.
Pod 2: CA schools.
Pod 3: AZ and MTN schools.

Each year, you’d play everyone in your pod and three of the four teams in each of the other pods. (For instance: The NW schools would play three of the four CA schools every year.)

Once the divisions are settled, the focus will then shift to planning a championship game, and picking a neutral site to play host. apparently the finalists are Phoenix (Glendale), Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego ... and Las Vegas.