University of Utah president is quiet on athletic program expansion
By Mike Sorensen , Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Amid all the rampant speculation about conference expansions and realignments, the people who know more than anyone else are the college presidents. They're the ones who make the decisions about the future of their universities and the alignments of their various conferences.
One of those people in the know is University of Utah President Michael Young, who is in his sixth year as the top man at the U. However, if Young knows the answers in the current hubbub of college athletics — which seems to change almost on a daily basis — he's doing a great job of acting like he doesn't.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Deseret News at his office late last week, Young talked at length about the university athletic program and its possibilities for the future. He's very positive about the recent successes of the U. athletic programs and their future potential.
But he doesn't say a lot about any new conference realignment involving his school or an expansion of his school's current league. At least he's not talking about any details publicly.
Over the past two months, rumors have run wild all over the country, among them that the Big Ten would add one to five teams, that the Pac-10 would add a couple of teams, most likely Utah and Colorado, that the SEC would expand and the most recent one, that the Big 12 would basically dissolve and six of its teams would be added to the Pac-10.
Young has heard all of the rumors and keeps up on the day-to-day speculation about future leagues.
When asked about the rumors that the Pac-10 might invite Utah, perhaps as soon as this month, Young said flat out, "Nobody's made us an offer." He also emphasized, that it's "a decision the presidents of the Pac-10 are going to make and not us."
He also stressed he is happy with the Mountain West Conference, which he calls "the fastest-rising conference" in America. However, at the same time, he says Utah would consider the Pac-10 if the opportunity arose.
It has also been commonly speculated that the MWC is set to extend an invitation to Boise State to be its 10th member with the announcement coming as soon as Monday. Young and the other eight presidents in the league are meeting for three days at Jackson, Wyo., for their annual get-together, starting today and running through Tuesday.
In regards to expansion, Young said nothing was imminent as far as he knew. He said expansion has been on the agenda each of the six years he's been president, and it will be again this year.
He claims there have been no decisions made in advance on whether to add Boise State or any other school. He said he was in a meeting with BYU President Cecil Samuelson for more than an hour last Thursday and that neither of them had a feeling of what might happen this week.
"I don't think we know what is going to happen," Young said. "I don't think Cecil and I know. I'm not saying nothing's going to come out of it, and I'm not saying something's going to come out of it. It's going to be a good conversation."
One reason nothing's been decided yet is the uncertainty among the major conferences around the country right now. The day Young was interviewed, stories had just come out about the possibility of six schools, led by Texas, leaving the Big 12 to join an expanded Pac-10.
"The landscape changes out from under you," said Young. "This conversation (at the MWC meetings) will be a particularly interesting one because the Big Ten and the Big 12 have changed the conversation pretty dramatically. So it will be a different conversation. It changes every time we meet."
Some have talked about the MWC merging with the remnants of the Big 12 should half of its league go to the Pac-10 and a couple more to the Big 10. Young worries about the league getting too large.
"We've been very cautious," he said. "We have to wisely exercise caution because there is enough historical memory of what happened in the (16-team) WAC, at least as it's been described to me. You could admit another team and another team and pretty soon it's the size of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and that becomes untenable."
Another factor is the BCS and how the MWC can best position itself for possible inclusion in the future.
"The BCS changes the conversation a little bit because a conference structured in a particular way may or may not be more competitive and more likely to be eligible for AQ status," he said. "This time, with the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 all talking, you have yet another conversation, because the landscape is potentially changing."
With the possibility of his school joining the Pac-10 perhaps less likely than it was a month ago due to recent developments with the Big 12, Young sounds enthusiastic about the future of Utah's current league.
"Look, we like the Mountain West Conference a lot," he said. "It's the fastest rising conference and, if you look at the on-field performance, we're probably statistically better than two of the six automatic qualifier conferences. It's a good conference and we're happy there. We don't have our bags packed and we never have."
But what about the Pac-10?
"If the Pac-10 were to come calling, you'd have to give it serious consideration. That's pretty much where we are. Nobody's made us an offer. I'm a huge believer in not making decisions until I have to."
Young says TV revenues drive the current posturing among various conferences. The more money they can get from TV contracts, the better.
"I'm pleased it probably drives us a little less than other schools," he said. "Maybe it's because we've been pretty successful and therefore have been able to generate revenues that have not required us to make any choices about trading off athletics to academics.
"For all the problems the mid-majors have in very heavily subsidizing their athletic programs with tuition and state dollars, the University of Utah looks more like (a BCS school) than virtually every school in the Mountain West and the WAC. And so we don't have to make and wouldn't make trade-offs of athletics versus academics. But the more money we can get, the better, absolutely."
Currently Utah has an athletic budget in the $25 million to $30 million range, which is less than one-third of the budgets of schools such as Ohio State and Alabama. If Utah were to join a BCS conference like the Pac-10, its budget would increase, along with its expenses.
When asked if he's happy with the state of the Utah athletic program, Young answers with a straight face, "No. I want to win the national championship in every sport."
Then he smiles and says, "The athletic program is really terrific. It fits in nicely within where the university is. It's a nice balance with a lot of distinction and credit to the university. It's not outsized in the sense we're not a university trying to make our football team proud of us. It's a good balance and I like that a lot.
"Athletics are wonderful," Young continues. "But at the end of the day, our mission is to educate kids. Athletics are, as (athletic director) Chris Hill describes it, a 'front porch to the university.' I love our athletic programs, but they are part of an academic institution, and that will always be the case."
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