The Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 will feature the University of Southern California against the University of Michigan--the best of the Pacific10Conference against the best of the Big 10.
In his four years as commissioner, Larry Scott has transformed the stately, sleepy Pacific-10 Conference into the big-business Pac-12, expanding the conference and quadrupling its annual television-rights revenue.
There are now conference championships in the Big 12, Big 10, Big East, ACC, Pacific-12 and even the MAC and Conference USA. All of the inter-conference moves of late Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten, Louisville to the ACC and East Carolina and Tulane to the Big East were the most recent were all done for money, an indirect response to the original SEC Championship.