The Pac-8 Conference had been formed in the late 60s with the idea of making a true western power conference that could compete with the likes of the Big 10 (both academically and athletically).  But, less than a decade into its existence, there was discontent in the alliance. 

Naturally, the issue was money.  Before TV became the driving force in athletic budgets, it was attendance.  The Los Angeles schools were trying to crank up cash flows that would keep them near the top of the national scale, but they weren't getting a lot of help.  Stanford and Cal were doing OK, but game days in Oregon were drawing crowds that you'd expect to see in Reno, Nevada now. 

It only got worse the further north you went.  Washington and Washington State were the weak links.  They had managed a grand total of three winning seasons combined between 1968 and 1975.  These were prestigious public academic institutes, but there was no sign of football life.

For fans of the Mountain West Conference in the 21st century, the scenario resonates - a top-heavy conference with the big dogs pulling all the weight, while the bottom half scarcely competes and does absolutely nothing to contribute financially.

As the budgets became strained, USC started to grumble.  Things had to change, and the Trojans were convinced the answer was located about 350 miles to the East.  

It was a natural place to look.  Since 1950, the population of Phoenix had exploded going from just over 100,000 to around 700,000 late in the 1970s.  Tucson's growth had been similar.  In the mean time, Arizona and Arizona State were selling a lot of tickets in expanding stadiums.  Arizona State was becoming a perennial Top 10 team.  

USC started to send up some expansion test balloons in 1974 and 1975.  Predictably, some of their conference mates were not convinced.  The Washington schools saw it as a threat.  They didn't trust the Trojans and suspected this might be a pre-emptive move to eventually squeeze them out of the Pac-8 all together.  The Oregon schools had similar suspicions and were quite vocal in sticking up for their northwestern counterparts.

Robert MacVicar, Oregon State's president, told newspapers he was "Reserving judgment" on possible expansion, and wanted assurance that "major changes would not be made later in conference policy."

Even in Palo Alto there was distrust of the L.A. schools.  Stanford President Richard Lyman held a special meeting with alumni in 1976 where he publicly stated his fear that all of the northwest schools could eventually be squeezed out of the conference if USC got its way.

Where were these conspiracy theories founded?  They partly came from an interesting proposal for basketball scheduling, that brought to mind both BYU and Utah.

Somewhere, someone (undoubtedly from USC according to the skeptics) proposed a 12-team basketball format to compliment a 10-team football league.  The numbers were based on scheduling convenience, but it brought the inevitable question about who those basketball-only teams would be.  

Publicly, no one ever mentioned specific names - the proposal never got far enough.  But everyone knew what the major options were.  San Diego State would be restless in trying to work any kind of association with its coastal neighbors.  Former associates like Idaho might be interested, and there were other pacific schools like Long Beach State.  But, nobody could ignore the two basketball powers in Utah.  They boasted two of the biggest, finest college arenas in the west, and they had the competitive record.  

The Pac-Xs cultural concerns about BYU were just as apparent in the late 70s as they are today.  But, if BYU did have one ally on the coast, it had to be USC - the Pac-8s only other private school, with a more conservative reputation than its other colleagues.   

Nobody knew it then, but this would be the one and only time the window of opportunity would open for both BYU and Utah to move together.  It didnt take a great leap of imagination to figure out how a basketball-only association could lead to better things for football.  And, a burgeoning BYU gridiron program was also coming along in a very timely manner.  

But could they pull it off?  And who did USC really have in mind with this 12-team brainchild? 

Indirectly, the Trojans answered the latter half of that question when expansion talk became a formal league agenda in 1976.  As the posturing and prodding commenced, USC laid all the cards out on the table.  If expansion didn't happen, the Trojans threatened to walk. 

"There might have been a breakup of the conference," said Cal AD David Maggard.  "The threat of USC pulling out was very real.  UCLA might have followed."

So where would USC and UCLA have gone?  A new conference seemed the likely option.  Of course, that conference would include the Arizona schools, possibly Cal and Stanford, and...

Unfortunately for BYU and Utah, the discussion never went any further.  The rest of the Pac-8 knew they couldn't lose USC.  From July through early December of that year, the schools talked and negotiated.  As the talks progressed, the 12-team basketball idea was dropped.  This helped calm the fears of the northwest schools.  By late fall, open discussions were being held with the Sun Devils and Wildcats.

On December 13, 1976, the Pac-8 issued formal invitations to giddy Arizona and Arizona State for full membership.  The basketball issue was never addressed again.

This was not unanimously considered a great move.  Wyoming coach Fred Akers said he thought the Arizona schools had joined a conference "heading in the wrong direction."  Akers accepted a job at Texas two days later, and watched from the confines of the SWC as his prediction was proven incorrect. 

In January, the WAC filed a lawsuit trying to force the Sun Devils and Wildcats to keep several years worth of scheduling commitments.  A settlement was quickly reached that allowed the expansion to go through starting in 1978.  Then, the final blow - the Fiesta Bowl terminated its contract with the WAC.  It no longer felt incentivized to host the WAC champion and moved on to greener pastures.  

The remaining WAC schools added San Diego State, Air Force, and Hawaii in the next few years.  They were decent choices, but none of them ever became the powers that the WAC hoped.  The Holiday Bowl was born in 1978 to replace the ambitious Fiesta Bowl.  But, the damage was done.  Utah and BYU were solidified as members of a "mid-major" conference with no true national powers and a sub-par bowl tie-in.  By gobbling up the Arizona schools, the new Pac-10 had put a tight grip on the western sports markets.  Combined with its Rose Bowl swagger, it slipped comfortably into the power conference role.  

Ironically, it was Washington - not Arizona and Arizona State - that ended up crowning the Pac-10s place as a major competitive power.  The "weak link" of the Pac-8 burst onto the scene with a 10-2 record in 1977, led by a relatively young coach named Don James.  The Huskies won six Pac-10 titles and a national championship over the next 17 years, while the Arizona schools mostly languished in mediocrity.  The team that USC had allegedly conspired to jettison became one of the league's most important assets.

It would be almost another decade before conference expansion became a hot-topic again, but BYU and Utah would never find another possibility like the one that briefly came to light in 1976.

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Coming in Part II...

As BYU chases a national championship, a court ruling forever changes the NCAA.  Within a few years, this sets off a chain reaction of alignment and bowl agreements that completely overhaul the face of college football for better or worse.  BYU and Utah both come up again in Pac-10 expansion talks, and BYU becomes a Big 12 candidate.