Just another Pac-10 football media day

After the short, cool summer, it’s time to get back to football with a vengeance. There are a lot of items on the link, so read on. By the way, I am trying a new look today, dropping the Cougar label, to correspond to the rest of the blog. Let me know what you think.

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• As we prepare for another Pac-10 football media day – like no other in that it will be held outside at the Rose Bowl and is the last stop in a three-day tour by the conference coaches (think they’re happy?) – the future of the conference seems to be almost overshadowing the present. So what should we address first here, the upcoming season or the Pac-12? We’ll go with the latter. … Though the Pac-10 athletic directors meet down here Friday, commissioner Larry Scott keeps saying it’s pretty likely nothing will be decided until the presidents meet in October. Fine. But that doesn’t keep people from speculating. The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner has been doing the most reporting, with this post looking at what he says are the two most talked about plans. Then there are the ancillary issues, like the Pac-10 television network, which Scott discussed with the New York Times, and the schedule, which he discussed with ESPN.com. (Speaking of ESPN.com, Ted Miller has a couple videos from his trip to New York – no, not vacation films, interviews – and podcasts of Scott and selected coaches on the Pac-10 blog.) … Now back to this year. The conference also has 3 minutes of Paul Wulff from New York. The LA Times examines the upcoming season, while one writer shares his Pac-10 picks for the preseason poll. How would you pick the conference? I would love to see your list of the 10 teams. Post enough and I’ll let you in on mine. As for the Pac-10 media’s picks, my guess is Oregon will be chosen to win the conference and WSU will be last. Everything else will be up in the air. We’ll have a post on the poll as soon as it’s released. … Other items available today include an interview with UA athletic director Greg Bryne and Register-Guard George Schroeder opining on the future of Jeremiah Masoli.

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• That’s all for now. We’ll be back from the Rose Bowl with more. Paul Wulff and Kevin Kooyman are up first at around 9:40 a.m. Until then …