Utah Utes leaving Mountain West Conference to join Pac-10 in 2011

SALT LAKE CITY — When he sat down with the Deseret News for an interview earlier this month about the future of his school's athletic program, University of Utah president Michael K. Young said the U. had not received an offer from the Pac-10 to join their conference.

However, Young was also quick to say, "If the Pac-10 were to come calling, we'd have to give it serious consideration."

Well, the Pac-10 came calling earlier this week and it didn't take Utah long to seriously consider and then jump on the offer. The Utes will join the University of Colorado, which accepted an invitation a week ago, in the league that is expected to change its name to the Pac-12.

Utah's invitation was finalized on Wednesday and the official announcement will come today at 1 p.m., assuming the university's Board of Trustees formally approves the move in a meeting scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

No one at the U. is talking publicly about the move or what transpired over the past few days, until today's press conference. Every coach and athletic department employee contacted Wednesday said they were instructed not to talk until after today's announcement and Young and athletics director Chris Hill were not returning phone calls.

One university official explained that the negotiations were kept very quiet and involved as few people as possible because moving to the Pac-10 was both extremely desirable and delicate at the same time.

"They wanted to ensure that nothing got in the way," the official said. "The fewer the people involved, the better. People were quiet because they wanted it to work."

During the interview two weeks ago, Young talked about the changing scenarios in college athletics and how "the landscape changes out from under you." That's exactly what happened earlier this week when the University of Texas decided to stay in the Big 12, along with four other schools after they had been rumored to be headed west to turn the Pac-10 into the "Pac-16."

Once that happened, the Pac-10 turned to Plan B, which was to add Utah with Colorado and make a 12-team league that can be split into divisions and create an annual conference championship football game.

So just how did Utah end up with the big boys in the Pac-10, which is known as the "conference of champions" because of the fact that it has more NCAA titles than any other conference in America?

It probably started with the appointment of Larry Scott as the commissioner of the conference last July 1.