....when you said, "That's essentially what's driving the money for the Pac-12. Expanding their tv footprint to the entire country, not just the regional west."

If that was the point of expanding then they wouldn't have picked 2 teams with only a small regional following where neither are even the top draw in their own states let alone region. Not only does BYU outdraw Utah within the state of Utah but in the surrounding states as well.

Colorado is way down the list of what sports fans in the Denver/Colorado Springs/Boulder area are going to watch on TV. I think they're even lower than Monster Truck rallies and Rodeo on that list. Like I've stated in other posts in this thread, just because you're in the TV footprint doesn't mean you deliver the market. Does TCU "really" deliver the Dallas/Ft Worth TV market? Can they fill their tiny football stadium in games, other than BYU games, with all of those 10's of millions of "fans" in the surrounding area? Nope.

When BYU goes on the road they bring out the crowds and it's not Utah fans driving or flying all the way to see them, it's fans local to that area who come out to the game that in many cases wouldn't have otherwise if it was Utah or someone else.

What's puzzling to me is why doesn't Utah have that same effect? Just after Utah's earth shattering, course of humanity altering, Fiesta Bowl win they traveled to play UCLA in 2006. 59k fans came out to watch in a stadium that holds 91K. A year later BYU came to play and drew 73K. Almost 25% more fans due to it being BYU. When you measure the financial gain that UCLA received from BYU (over and above Utah) including tickets, parking, concessions, souvenirs, etc you're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million more dollars (figuring a conservative estimate of $100 spent). That's financial clout that BYU has over Utah and it happens like that all over the country.

I'm not saying Utah isn't a good fit for the Pac12. I'm sure Utah's recent past success in football helped them. But Colorado hasn't had any recent success and the only BCS Bowl they went to they got clobbered 38-16 10 yrs ago in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl so I'm not sure how that helped them (btw, BYU's been to the Fiesta Bowl before). What I am saying is the real reason BYU was not invited is not any of the reasons Yewt fans attribute. It's elementary easy to shoot holes in all of them.

For a real clue just look at how BYU teams are treated by some California schools when they go on the road (remember STanford's band a few years back or more recently SDSU fans in basketball?) The utes don't ellicit that same response even though they come from the same state and only 40 minutes away. It really boils down to the LDS Church's ownership of BYU vs Utah being a state run institution (I don't recall hearing any instances where Yewt sports teams get insulted for religious reasons when they go on the road). Plain and simple, if you take your red goggles off the picture becomes pretty clear.