CATCH OF THE DAY:
BYU finally goes independent 
September 2, 2010 by Sage Sammons
The Cougars have finally gotten their wish. They will go independent in football and move to the WCC for all other sports
It went from the “best plan in the world” to backfiring to settling for Plan C, joining the West Coast Conference.
Of course, I’m talking about the last two weeks of the BYU drama.
The Cougars went from being part of the Western Athletic Conference, essentially reviving the conference’s life, to now basically tearing it apart. BYU’s decision to go independent forced the Mountain West Conference to raid the WAC. The MWC just made themselves stronger and proved that they did want to become a legitimate Bowl Championship Series conference.
That then put BYU in limbo. Should they go crawling back to the conference they left, or should they shoot for the moon and attempt to become a football perennial?
As of Tuesday, they chose the latter. But they weren’t granted everything they wanted.
BYU was hoping to get the Notre Dame treatment and, as soon as they were in the top eight nationally in football, to be an automatic qualifier to a BCS game. That hasn’t happened yet, and it shouldn’t. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: BYU is not Notre Dame. No one is, for that matter, and Notre Dame shouldn’t even be considered the way they have been, especially recently.
BYU is going to be like the Army and the Navy, independent and not automatically eligible for the BCS. The difference is the Army and the Navy are preparing their athletes to go into the military, not the NFL. They have a bigger agenda that doesn’t revolve around dollars and cents, and at the end of the day, that’s why BYU is leaving the MWC.
In the last couple of years, BYU hasn’t been a fan of the TV deal that the MWC currently has just because it pays every school equally and doesn’t allow competitors to rerun games. It is a rare case and has been criticized by more than just BYU because of the lack of a national audience.
However, with the Mtn. Network, the conference isn’t subject to being held hostage by a major network, forced to play games that start at 9 p.m. and air as a “midnight game” on the East Coast. It allows every game to be televised and everyone benefits equally from it. But BYU sees a chance for a big-time raise and they are going to take it.
The university is part of BYUtv, which is shown worldwide, and can benefit greatly by not sharing any profits with other schools. But what they were counting on was joining a conference that already had some football schools so that scheduling wouldn’t be so difficult. Joining the WCC is going to be tough, because the WCC doesn’t play football (or some of BYU’s other sports for that matter.)
It is a good fit for the Cougars, though. They are joining a conference where all the schools are faith-based like BYU is. It is also a conference that is competitive in smaller sports like baseball and soccer, like BYU is. But instead of it being a conference issue for not getting to play in the bigger bowl games or making it to the tournament in men’s basketball, it will push the blame completely onto the athletic department for not scheduling hard enough outside of conference. This is a problem that Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s have run into in the past.
In all likelihood, the Cougars will still play MWC teams, especially UNLV. The location is fairly reasonable. They are both competitive in a few sports, mainly basketball. But the biggest reason is the number of BYU faithful that live in the Las Vegas area.
The decision doesn’t drastically hurt UNLV and doesn’t really impede the progress the MWC has made.
In basketball, it takes away two chances to boost the Rebel’s RPI, where Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State won’t be able rival that. In football, it takes the chances away of some years beating a team in the Top 25.
As a conference, the MWC will be at 10 by the start of the 2012 season at the latest. The talks are either to get two more teams and put in for an AQ for a BCS bowl game or to stay at 10 and team up with Conference USA to get a title game and then try to be an AQ for a BCS bowl game. Either way, BYU was not needed for either of those. But if it turns out that the MWC can’t get an AQ to a BCS game, then BYU will get the last laugh.
So Notre Dame should be considered for BCS games based on its name and history rather than the strength of its team?
In other words, you don’t believe in a level playing field.
BYU repeated from the very beginning that they were not Notre Dame and did not expect to be treated like Notre Dame.
They were simply tired of being boxed in by the Mountain network and it’s $1.2 million yearly payment for all-sports broadcast rights.
Now, they are going to get $800,000 – $1.2 million per game for 3-5 games per year on ESPN PLUS broadcast rights dollars for their WCC basketball program PLUS they can broadcast all the games they want on BYU-tv.
Notre Dame had nothing to do with it.
Hilarious article coming from a UNLV writer, had it not been for the UNLV’s,New Mexico’s and other dregs in the Mtn. West perhaps Utah and Byu would have been content to ride out the next two years and get BCS AQ status.
Sage,
This may have been the most even handed article I’ve read in two weeks on the BYU Indie situation. I hope to see the MWC do well in it’s bid for a BCS table setting. I’d prefer to see some type of play-off that leads to a final game. If there had been in 2008 the Utes might have taken the National Championship.
Either way, UNLV fans and writers have shown a lot of class in their comments toward both BYU and Utah. There is no dought that the MWC is not as strong with either or both of those teams missing. In the end the MWC will do fine.
This article is so biased and off the mark it’s ridiculous. BYU never was nor intended to be Notre Dame, and they did not leave the MWC until just now. Also, they did not force the MWC to do anything, and they didn’t tear apart the WAC. They tried to help the WAC, but Nevada and Fresno State did what they felt was best for their teams and left the WAC.
Wouldn’t have expected anything less from a classy rebels fanboy.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Oronde Glaspie and 2012 day, 2012 day. 2012 day said: http://www.bit.ly/dCdebN CATCH OF THE DAY: BYU finally goes independent http://tinyurl.com/26z9hke http://www.bit.ly/dCdebN [...]
Strawman Alert…
BYU never claimed they were Notre Dame, in fact they have gone out of their way to say they are NOT.
BYU will become an AQ school, somewhere between Navy and Notre Dame’ s deal. That has not settled yet, but is forthcoming.
Regardless of any of that, it is not the reason BYU did this.
Listen up, It’s about Exposure and Access.. PAY ATTENTION!
Also, BYU will continue to play UNLV in Basketball and Football. Look for agreements coming forth.
The BYU games are always UNLV’s largest attended games. As it is with virtually every other school.
The MWC will NEVER recieve BCS status, they were right there, but the third criteria, is where UNLV, SDSU, New Mexico and Wyoming blew it for evreyone.
BYU has carried the bottomfeeders long enough.
Their ability to market their “OWN BRAND” just boosted their TV revenues by 10-15 fold.
I would think that anyone in Las Vegas would understand the priciples of “Free Enterprise”.
I think that BYU did just what the rest of us in the conference wished we could do. I do hope that we have many games with them in the future because, when all is said and done, they historically have had a fun and entertaining product. And yes, the lower teams in football in our conference have simply got to raise the level of their play. We can’t expect to be “carried” along forever.