Everyone wanted USC, but then they needed another team to come with them

Ohio St wanted Oregon
USC wanted Utah
FOX wanted UCLA and the Los Angeles market

FOX made the call

As an aside, I think it's definitely possible some at USC suggested Utah, though it's maybe not the compliment others think. We know USC was tired of losing recruiting battles to Oregon and also didn't want to share the city with UCLA. So Utah was a team that was good enough on the field to be justifiable, but lacked the upside to contend with USC if USC got their act together. Both UCLA and Oregon simply have higher upside. Which is also why those were the ones that eventually went