SALT LAKE CITY — The seismic shift that occurred throughout college football over the past week was felt strongly in northern Utah as the state's biggest university was one of the biggest players to change addresses.
On Friday, the University of Utah officially announced it would be heading to the Big 12 Conference next year, leaving behind a 12-year relationship with the Pac-12.
"Our goal has always been to become one of the top public universities with unsurpassed societal impact," said school president Taylor Randall Monday. "That means that we, when we make a decision like this, we think holistically about the university, we think about the standards it sets for us and this Big 12 Conference sets high standards."
The Utes were one of four teams to make the leap from the Pac-12 to Big 12 in the last two weeks, joining Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado. Fellow Pac-12 schools Oregon and Washington made their own moves to the Big Ten.
A much lower-than-expected streaming-centric television contract proposal from Pac-12 officials compared to the payouts from other conferences was the push the schools needed to look elsewhere.
During Monday's briefing alongside Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan, Randall acknowledged that he and his fellow university leaders tried to keep the Pac-12 together, but shared how the lack of a firm television deal led to the decision to switch conferences.
"At the end of the day, each university was plugging in the numbers and kind of making their own decision. And obviously, the outcome is, where we are today," he said.
Harlan didn't deny there are moments of disappointment about leaving the Pac-12 after so many years of success.
"Of course, there's bittersweet. It'd be disingenuous for me not to say that, and there may be time to reflect weeks and months from now," said Harlan. "But there's the sweet part, too, and there is excitement of what's ahead in the cities that our student-athletes will be able to compete in and those opportunities that will be new."
While many around the country are blaming television networks and the money they spend on broadcast rights as the reason for the downfall of collegiate sports, Randall says there is also more behind the curtain.
"Media is part of it, but so is building an incredible, an incredible league that wants to stay together," he explained. "When you think about this from a university president's perspective, you're looking broader than just the dollars and cents. You got to keep an athletic program healthy, so it's got to meet some minimum viability, for sure.
"But on the margin you're not gonna choose for a million or two here, you're thinking about the long term view of the university and where you need to position it, and I'm sure that's what the other presidents were doing as well."
One concern about the new 16-team Big 12 is its nearly nationwide footprint that is expected to increase travel times as the conference includes schools in places like West Virginia and Florida. Harlan said there is give and take, and that some schools in the Big 12 are closer than those that were in the Pac-12, but that overall, Utah athletes will be the athletic department's primary focus.
"We're not gonna step one little inch back on what we provide them, how we take care of them, their health and wellness and all of that remains our singular focus," he said. "And so whatever happens next, they'll be taken care of in, in a great way."
