I guess I assume many others in the state of AZ watch Arizona football outside of just those living by Tucson but maybe that is not the case. I love the state of Utah but the population here is tiny compared to surrounding populations in these other western states with competitive schools. Even with 50 years the population in Utah is not likely to keep up with the areas where viewership in AZ and CO are. Eyes of viewers is the most important element of conferences wanting programs. I just don't think Utah wins that analysis.

In fact, there is a good argument that one of the other 4 corner schools would likely get a lot better with $80 mil and a good conference which would increase their viewers. Now lets examine if Utah gets $80 mil a year. Even if they get better and go from a top 20 team to a top 10 team, are they going to pull in a lot more geographic viewers? Unlikely. They have already been a quality program and pulling better viewership than they ever had. Where would they pull new viewers from? Maybe a few BYU kids start to cheer for Utah and a few more from population growth in the state but they still are not going to be pulling lots more West coast viewership or people in ID, WY, AZ, NV or CO. No major growth would happen unless they pulled a Miami or Nebraska type dynasty over college football in order to appeal those outside of their natural geographic influence.