Under the management of new commissioner Larry Scott, the Pac-10 has aggressively looked to spread its reach from being simply a West Coast conference that most times plays its football games at a god-awful East Coast time on subpar networks to one that reaches out preemptively to the other-coast sports television monopolies in a needed grab for exposure.
Already, Pac-10 coaches have made what seems to be a future obligatory offseason tour of ESPN. Then there was the whole “rape and pillage the Big 12" brouhaha you may have heard about that kept the conference in the headlines at a time of the year when normally only something USC did would even remotely register nationally.
Now, a player who will likely be high on most every preseason Heisman watch list has made his way to the other side of the country.
By way of George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard -- if you’re not following him on Twitter, you’re missing out -- we’ve learned that Washington quarterback Jake Locker is currently in New York City, visiting the sites the city has to offer and also the media opportunities only available in that neck of the media woods.
It’s a stroke of much-needed genius for both the Pac-10 and Locker’s school -- and his Heisman campaign -- and something that the forward-thinking Scott will continue to do to help keep his conference relevant throughout the offseason nationally.