I will have the Iowa State preview up either later today or tomorrow, so don't fret.
First, though, I'd like to discuss Jon Wilner's current blog post about the Pac-10 divisions, revenue sharing and championship game. More importantly, I want to focus in on what he said about the split divisions, because it pretty much contradicts what he's been suggesting the past couple of months.
DIVISION ALIGNMENT
Zipper split: 8:1
North-South split (CA schools together): 3:1.
North-South split (CA schools separated): 2:1
Comment: Get comfortable …...
Despite recent comments from sources that the "lean" was to keeping the California schools together in the South, I cannot imagine the NW schools agreeing to that … even with a change in the revenue model … which is why the Zipper was first proposed. That would be a disaster for them over time, especially on the recruiting front.
(I keep thinking of the comment from Nebraska AD Tom Osborne about the Big 12’s "center of gravity" shifting to the South division. Texas is to the Big 12 what California is to the Pac-12.)
So on one hand you have Scott pushing for North-South and on the other you have the NW schools resisting a split along the California-Oregon border.
The only compromise — and remember, this is only for football; there won’t be divisions for basketball — is to put Cal and Stanford into the North with the Oregon and Washington schools with the newcomers joining USC, UCLA and the Arizona schools in the South.
So there you have it. My guess we'll see a North/South split where Utah and Colorado join UCLA, USC and the Arizona schools.
But we'll see.