Austin Linford was thrilled when he heard the

was expanding to 12 members this year. The change meant that Linford, a USC alumnus, would be able to take his family to Trojan football games near their home outside Salt Lake City, where conference newcomer Utah plays.

But Linford's mood turned sour late last year, when he realized he had something the conference wanted: the domain name

. He said he received "a threatening letter, saying if I don't give them the domain, they'll sue me."

Linford bought the domain name in 2005 for a project and doesn't want to give it up.

Woodie Dixon, the Pac-10 general counsel and VP of business affairs, said he doesn't doubt that Linford received an aggressive letter seeking the site. But Dixon said the conference had sent similar letters to the owners of a dozen or more other domain names asking if they would give them to the conference.

Several did, including the owner of pac-12.net. Dixon said that if the conference launches its own TV network, as is being explored, it might incorporate "network" into the name. Time is running short, as the conference re-launch is set for this summer, and the site will need to be known by March or April, Dixon said.

Here's where things get weird. After Linford received the Pac-10 letter, he posted on his site some links to songs by rapper

, of which he's a fan. Three other sites --

,

and

-- show identical links to Tupac songs. Dixon said the Pac-10 is being told that Linford owns those sites, but Linford (and online registries) insists that he doesn't.

Apparently the rapper, killed in 1996, lives on.

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