Utah has accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10, and will become the league’s 12th member, joining recent newcomer Colorado.

This is a great move for the Pac-10, opening up the Denver and Salt Lake City markets, and an adequate fallback once the Pac-16 realities faded.

Utah will become the conference’s third or fourth best football team, and is certainly no slouch in basketball, while the Buffaloes need to improve in both.

Realignment is the new big question, and will need to be addressed quickly. Some are calling for a “zipper” split, essentially breaking up the natural geographic pairings, and some are clamoring for a “north” and a “south,” essentially with Washington, WSU, Oregon, OSU, Cal and Stanford in the north, and with UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in the south.