[Farm93]

Honestly, I think this whole division thing is a bigger deal to C.a.l.

The majority of Stanford students are not from Cali.  The majority of Stanford students were not considering UCLA or USC.  In fact, the majority of Stanford students likely were not actively considering any other Pac-10 school.  So for most incoming students the reality would be that they would look at a list of Pac-12 schools and just shrug.

Stanford football has a slight LA bias, but truthfully almost every other Pac-10/12 team has more LA kids.

Meanwhile, at C.a.l.  The vast majority of their students are Cali based.  The vast majority applied to UCLA since it is the same application.  Many probably applied to USC and Stanford too.  So that cluster of 4 schools means something very different to them.  Also, their roster is packed with SoCal kids.  Getting tossed into a different division would be a recruiting killer.

I suspect the real force behind the division alignment was not Colorado.  Rather the real forces were Oregon and UW.  Both probably demanded a trip to some part of California at least once a year with an option for two trips every other year.  That likely was the power base that created the North-South division.  Blaming everything on Colorado was just an easy out.

[Farm93]

Honestly, I think this whole division thing is a bigger deal to C.a.l.

The majority of Stanford students are not from Cali.  The majority of Stanford students were not considering UCLA or USC.  In fact, the majority of Stanford students likely were not actively considering any other Pac-10 school.  So for most incoming students the reality would be that they would look at a list of Pac-12 schools and just shrug.

Stanford football has a slight LA bias, but truthfully almost every other Pac-10/12 team has more LA kids.

Meanwhile, at C.a.l.  The vast majority of their students are Cali based.  The vast majority applied to UCLA since it is the same application.  Many probably applied to USC and Stanford too.  So that cluster of 4 schools means something very different to them.  Also, their roster is packed with SoCal kids.  Getting tossed into a different division would be a recruiting killer.

I suspect the real force behind the division alignment was not Colorado.  Rather the real forces were Oregon and UW.  Both probably demanded a trip to some part of California at least once a year with an option for two trips every other year.  That likely was the power base that created the North-South division.  Blaming everything on Colorado was just an easy out.