In all likelihood, Pat Haden isn't particularly pleased with this latest tidbit. Per ESPN.com:
Athletic directors voted 7-5 on the alignment -- Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC and Utah in one division and Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington and Washington State -- in the other, Haden said. The presidents of the schools will vote on it later this month.
"I told [the rest of the athletic directors] my alumni will kill me if we don't play the Northern California schools," Haden said.
"I proposed a 5-2-2 model that has us playing the five schools [in our division] every year and then have the Northern California schools as part of our regular two and then rotate the other two. We need to play Stanford and Cal."
I don't have a big problem with this alignment. It keeps UCLA in the same division, and prevents some convoluted ACC-based zipper setup from coming to fruition, which would break up the conference's traditional rivalries.
Nothing is perfect, and if the only significant downside to a divisional split, is the loss of the annual weekender trip to the Bay Area, I think, in time, that most of the students, alumni, and everyday fans, should be able to deal with it.