(sorry, my post above was in the wrong place)

Utah was a fall-back school when the Texas/Okla schools backed out. The Calif schools did't really want Utah (they did'nt think Utah's academics were up to Pac 10 standards and their fan base was too small to pull their weight in revenues), but it was the only option they had left. Colorado got invited because the Pac 10 wanted to block the inclusion of Baylor, a religous school.

If The Pac 10 people had had their way their conference would have included the Texas/Okla schools (minus Baylor) without Colorado and Utah. Utah's invitation ended up being rather flukish.