Your analogy regarding a new hire is a HUGE fail in my opinion. The smart candidate - BYU - does indeed have views different than your own. But the resume, and talent, and reputation of that candidate is off the charts compared to the other candidate - Utah. Colorado is the drugged out crackhead that soiled himself and puked in the waiting area. You feel sorry for him so you hire him. There is ZERO athletic reason to pick CO (other than he isn't BYU).

If you look at just athletics, fan base, plus athletic and revenue potential, it is hands down BYU. Not even close, you would be crazy NOT to pick BYU. Now add in the outside factors (not academic's), including prop 8, you hold your nose and pick Utah. Plain and simple. I work with a Utah fanatic and even he agrees the PAC should have picked BYU if they leave out the religious and prop 8 stuff.

Academics as we all know is a smoke screen. Other than Stanford, Cal, and MAYBE UCLA, BYU has just as good of research and academics as the others and better than most.

Bottom line, UTAH and CO got in because they were going to expand. They couldn't live with BYU views, so Utah. CO is a huge black hole, but has the CO market. End of story.

Having spoken the raw truth, at the end of the day, Utah is in, BYU is out. I'm very envious of Utah in this regard, congratulations, you did indeed win the lotto.