school with Houston and Cincinnati, when Utah is the poster child for commuter schools. Utah lucked out first off getting an invite into the pac 10 when they got turned down by their first couple of targets. Utah also lucked out that the new Pac 12 was on the decline that they filled the huge void that was created by horrible leadership of the conference and individual schools. Someone had to step in, but that is basically the equivalent of winning the ugly dog contest, someone had to win, and kudos to Utah for stepping up.

There is no way to deny the Pac has been in a decline for a long time, both on and off the field, and got to the point that the national media last year was making fun of how pathetic they were, unless you don't think having Pac teams lose to not one, but 2 Big Sky football teams last year.

Going back to "brand", I am pretty sure the vast majority of the country would recognize the names of the teams in the Big 12 over Utah any day, that's what brand means, not that Utah being recognized as a national brand, even though recently has had a little more success on the field than the lower levels of the Big 12.