In some respects UH already meets some of the PAC 12 standards if you look at Utah one of their newest members, they are high research UH is high research, endowment Utah-$668 million, UH/main campus-$589.8 million/UH-system $662.2 million, biggest difference between the 2 is ARWU USA ranked Utah/49, UH/86-108, one major advantage UH has over Utah is population DMA 10th, 6.18 million population in Houston metro area, Utah the state population 2.855 million Salt Lake City DMA 36th, depends what they are looking for in a member (because the low hanging fruit has been picked), one that is up and coming with a seemingly bright future academically, school that does have some notable sports history with the PAC (UCLA vs UH Astrodome 1968 Elvin Hayes against Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul Jabbar ) sitting in the second most populous state in the union and 6th largest metro area in the country. In the end this realignment stuff is about markets, and eyeballs watching your product...there's lots in Houston, If Houston can tap the vein of fan support that's there when they win and keep it high by being a compelling and competitive product in sports (football, basketball) they may have good chance of being in the P12 or some other P5.

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