With the Pac-10 set to become the Pac-12 as soon as next year, a football championship game to determine West Coast supremacy is quickly becoming a reality.

Immediately, the biggest question to me is where the game would be held.

There are two schools of thought–one is that it could be held at the site of the higher-seeded team, akin to the way professional sports conduct playoffs. The opposing view is that it could be held at a predetermined “neutral” site.

I think that the game must be held at the stadium of the higher-seeded team, and I don’t think it’s even that close.

According to ESPN.com’s Joe Schad, Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott and the powers that be in the Pac-10 are considering Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Seattle and Glendale, Ariz., for a potential “neutral-site” title game.

Los Angeles, Seattle and Glendale all throw up immediate red flags because of their supposed “neutrality.” I understand that it would be cool to have the championship game at Seattle’s Qwest Field, home to the NFL’s Seahawks, and a very nice stadium in its own right. But if the idea is to play someplace where no team has a distinct advantage, how can the game be equitable when the University of Washington is just 10 minutes down the road? In fact, UW is slated to play its home games at Qwest in 2012.

I won’t even begin about Seattle’s weather in December.

L.A. has the same “neutral” problems. Would any team find it fair to play USC or UCLA at the Rose Bowl? I don’t think so. Not to mention that the Rose Bowl should be reserved for the actual Rose Bowl. It would be very awkward for Oregon to win the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl, only to be rewarded with another trip to Pasadena weeks later.

Games in Las Vegas would be easier logistically, as there are endless hotel rooms and travel would be simple, but I think Las Vegas would easily outshine the game. The city wouldn’t stop to watch the game–it wouldn’t even slow down. The stadium also seats 36,800 and has terrible parking. I’m talking pure desert dust.

But before I continue, let’s just come clean about something. The real reason behind the debate about where to hold the game–and in fact the real reason there will be a game at all–is money.

The additional revenue generated by an extra marquee game makes it lucrative for the conference, and the commissioner and league executives want their title game to be sexy. Corvallis, Ore., is not sexy. Neither is Pullman, Wash. Were Oregon State or Washington State to have the top seed some day, the title game might have to be played there.

So yes, leaving the title game location up to chance is somewhat risky. And some argue that there would not be enough time between the end of the Pac-12’s regular season and the title game (usually about two weeks) for the proper infrastructure and hoopla to be set up.

Fine. Those are all perfectly logical arguments against letting teams host the game. But before you go along with the majority and side with the big-money executives, think about this–Stanford Stadium at night, filled to the brim with raucous Stanford students and alums all cheering for their team to win the championship on their turf. An entire campus consumed with Pac-12 football fever. It could happen.

I think that students should have the chance to root on their team in the conference title game at their stadium. Or at the very least make it a fantastic road trip to someplace like Autzen Stadium in Eugene or yes, Qwest Field if Washington were the high seed. The stadiums would sell out for sure, something not guaranteed and rather unlikely if the game involved out-of-market fans. (The 2008 ACC title game was held away from most of its member campuses in Tampa, Fla., and drew 27,360 fans in a 65,000-seat stadium.)

And there is something to be said for giving the higher-ranked team home-field advantage. If we sanction it in every professional sport, why don’t we do it in college?

If the Pac-12 adopts a neutral-site championship model, I believe that some of the luster is lost from the game itself. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the college football environment is the atmosphere around the game. Joy and electricity spread far and wide on college campuses everywhere Saturday mornings.

Please, Larry Scott, don’t take that away. Please, Pac-12, give part of the game back to the students and the campuses that make college football games far and away the most well-attended sporting events in the country.