script about Arizona and Arizona State spent most of their history in 3 conferences:

1) The Border Conference, which dissolved after the 1961 season, when the Arizona schools left.

2) The WAC, where the Wildcats and Sun Devils played for 17 years.

3) The Pac-10/12, where they've played since 1978, after feeling they outpaced the rest of the WAC.

The reason why I ask this comes from the fact that the Arizona schools have left an interesting mark on college football: After experiencing great success, the Arizona schools were continually left out of the major bowls. So they decided to make one of their own, the Fiesta Bowl.

The Fiesta Bowl is one of the premier bowls in college football, and formerly had a tie-in to the WAC. Well, a tie-in with Arizona State, which is where the game was initially played. Arizona State played in, and won, the first 4 Fiesta Bowls. But BYU and Wyoming each made appearances. The Fiesta Bowl had 7 games hosting the WAC champion via tie-in.

One of the biggest things people mention is that it took off as a major bowl once the tie-in ended. It was difficult to find a quality opponent in those first 7 years. Well, that's only partially true. During the final 3 years, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 9 Oklahoma, and No. 7 Penn State played the WAC champion. 1975 was a battle of Top 10 teams, No. 6 Arizona State and No. 7 Nebraska. This was a major bowl game.

The WAC also had some interesting key points early on as well. There was a lot of turmoil in western CFB at the time. The Pacific Coast Conference collapsed and left a few members stranded. The Border conference was weaker than the Canadian border. And the Skyline conference, well, honestly, I don't know a whole lot about it. So, in 1961, BYU AD Eddie Kimball hosted a meeting to discuss the formation of a new conference. The schools with reps there were: Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, New Mexico, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, and Wyoming. Though Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State decided to join the Pac-8, the remaining six were the charter members of the WAC.

The WAC before they left looked like this: * Arizona * Arizona State * BYU * Colorado State * New Mexico * Utah * UTEP * Wyoming

So that's all context.

Arizona and Arizona State took off for the Pac-8 in 1978, and dissolved the tie-in with the WAC as Arizona State operated the stadium the Fiesta Bowl was hosted in.

But what if they didn't leave?

This leaves me with a few interesting questions.

    Would there have been another western power conference? Keep in mind they had access to a major bowl

    What would the Pac-8 have done? Who else would they have invited that fit the profile of a Pac school?

    What would have happened to the rest of the western teams? How about the rest of the Southwest conference that got shut out of the Big 12?

    Would BYU still have their national championship?

    Would the WAC have added anyone later on, or would the idea of smaller conferences continued in the west due to smaller populations?

    How would the CFA vs. Oklahoma case shaken things out for these teams?

    Would the Big West still exist or Big Sky be FBS? (I would have loved to see a bowl with the tie-in of Big East vs. Big West)

Now, I know that the Arizona Schools joining the Pac-8 seems like it was inevitable. I get that. They seemed like a good fit. But I'm not asking why they would stay. I'm asking you to just bear with me and ask what would happen if they didn't leave?

Hope you enjoy the history lesson and I'm looking forward to seeing your alternate college football timelines and discussion.