along with Oklahoma, TT, TAMU, etc. History is pretty clear on this. In spite of internet rumors launched by Chris Hill and Kyle Whittingham about the Pac12 targeting Utah, the Pac 12 offered Colorado first in hopes of breaking up the Big 12 and then getting Texas, etc as a result. When Colorado said yes to the invite but the coveted Longhorns said no, the gamble backfired and Scott and the Pac 12 were now stuck and had to find another school to balance out the conferences so that Commissioner Scott could save face and spin the deal to the University Presidents that they could have a conference championship game just like the SEC.

Since Utah had been floating their own internet rumors about Pac 12 invites for at least a year, Scott figured it was a lock that they'd say yes, and knowing that they weren't BYU or Boise St he knew that the University Presidents wouldn't have a reason to say no (neither for religious bigotry reasons or academic snobbery reasons).

It's really a pretty clear story, very little guess work involved. I thought everyone understood this already. at the time of the invite it was Sen Orrin Hatch that was making noise about the Senate looking into the BCS system, not Shirtleff.