With each California touchdown last week in Berkeley, each cannon shot celebrating the Bears up on Tightwad Hill, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott’s sinking feeling must have grown more pronounced.

First, there was the obvious misgiving as Cal thrashed Colorado, 52-7: “This is the Colorado football program we’re getting in a year or two?”

And then there was this irony, which couldn’t have escaped Scott in the cascade of Cal points: The game perhaps served to muck up further the timing of Colorado’s entry into the Pac-10.

Utah is set for 2011. If Colorado could settle its exit-penalty fee with the Big 12, reported to be about $9 million, it would match Utah’s timing. If not, it comes west in 2012.

“Buff” does not describe Colorado’s bank account. Meanwhile, games like the one in Berkeley make it likely the school will have to fire coach Dan Hawkins (now 17-34 in four seasons), a dismissal that would cost about $2 million and deepen Colorado’s financial plight.

With a decision due by October, why couldn’t the Pac-10 membership divvy up Colorado’s exit penalty, knowing that the only way to realize the cash from a title game in 2011 is to have the Buffs in the fold (it takes six-team divisions to make that happen, per NCAA rule)?