UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero on Pac-10 expansion: ‘Something had to be done’

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So, will UCLA’s game at Texas in September count in Pacific 10 Conference standings?

Many issues are yet to be worked out, but the Pacific 10 Conference set in motion an expansion plan when Colorado officials announced that their university would join the Pac-10. Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech may follow.

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said, “If you’re not moving forward, you’re losing ground,” and the Big 10 was certainly moving forward.

Guerrero said Thursday morning that expansion plans by other conferences were not part of the Pac-10’s equation. Even so, Guerrero said, “something had to be done.”

Said Guerrero: “I think it was very clear, as [conference Commissioner] Larry Scott evaluated the landscape nationally, seeing what the Big 10 and Southeastern Conference accomplished with their media rights deals, it was clear that for us to be able to be on a par and compete long term with those entities, we may needed to evaluate what the conference looked like in future. The addition of Colorado is consistent with that thinking.”

Guerrero said that “it was clear that the Pac-10 was undervalued from a monetary standpoint. The exploration of expansion made sense.”

As to how far those expansion plans well go, whether it creates a Pac-16, Guerrero said, “At this point, we still don’t have an idea where it might land. The addition of Colorado adds value to the conference. We’ll see how things unfold in the future.”

But, Guerrero said, “This was about evaluating where the Pac-10 stood as a stand-alone conference. We needed to grow and develop to allow member institutions to optimize financially.”

-- Chris Foster