Benefits of Membership

[gnUTE]

I have been a long term lurker on UFN, now I would like to be a little more active here. Here is an article I hadn’t seen on this forum yet. Interesting notes on non-athletic benefits that also go along with PAC 12 membership:

Link

“Aside from athletics, there’s a belief within the institution that the conference connection yields benefits in the classroom too. The university is now aligned in the same region of some of the top institutions in the western U.S.

Being part of a major, Power 5 conference like the Pac-12 is an important factor in recruiting some faculty, sometimes even ones who are not personally hugely invested in athletic competitions,” University of Utah president David Pershing wrote in an email to KSL.com. “Faculty stars want to be associated with schools like Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, etc.”

[PlainsUte]

As someone in academia, I can say this is definitely true.  A lot things are done by athletic conference affiliation, including salary comparisons, resource comparisons, etc.

At first UTah may be seen as a newbie, but after awhile people will just lump them in with places like Cal, Washington, etc.

[Ute-angle]

I read that article this morning, the impression I got was that everything from, doubling the athletic budget, to getting top notch staff was the benefits of pac 12 affiliation.

[PorterRockwell]

membership has it’s privileges

[Milton Vanderslice]

its.  Put your grammar in a bowl of rice.

[PorterRockwell]

I’m an old gunfighter not a school marm

[UtahMan77]

I am good friends with Steve Smith which they quote quite a bit in the article.  When Utah first joined the PAC-12 he was a little nervous with the transition because we wouldn’t be getting a full share of the money.  I remember him talking about how he was scared there at the beginning because they were constantly running in the red and they were spending money like no one’s business with not a whole lot coming in.  

It seems like things have definitely changed since those first days of PAC-12 infancy.  Although he told me today “The crazy thing is I have a hard time sleeping at night knowing that any second if we had to replace a football or basketball staff we’d be in the red.”

[Tony (admin)]

Benefits of Ute Hub membership are awesome… oh wait.