Bronco Mendenhall has given BYU a 3-year deadline to get into a P5 conference and end independence. If that does not happen, what next? I doubt BYU gets back into the MWC, because I feel that the MWC doesn’t want BYU back.
BYU has schedule a lot of MWC schools in independence, but 5 of the 6 originals that BYU, Utah and TCU left behind have scheduled the Cougars. UNLV is the one bucking the trend. There appears to be some bad blood.
And, a recent survey shows that the majority of MWC fans don’t want BYU back:
I think it would take 9 votes (unsure if football-only Hawaii even has a say in the matter) to allow BYU back into the MWC. I think, at most, they would have 8.
Votes for (6)
Boise State
Fresno State
Nevada
UNLV
San Jose State
Utah State
Votes Against (3)
New Mexico
San Diego State
Wyoming
Unknown (2)
Air Force (Likely for)
Colorado State (Likely against)
I did not see where you gave you opinion on the MWC. Do you want to go back to the MWC?
I don’t. I dont mind playing several of their teams but it is not good to be consistantly playing them. By going independent we are playing teams from all over the country. That is my preference. If we can get those teams coming here in both football and basketball, I’m a happy camper. We definatly need the TV contract. If we can win with a more difficult schedule, we will get a better contract or an invitation. If we get a better contract the invitation isn’t that important.
Jeff
If the MWC doesn’t want BYU back, then my opinion doesn’t matter.
Personally, I do miss the rivalries with New Mexico and Wyoming, etc, but other than Air Force, they were becoming too one-sided. It was clear that there was some distance between BYU, Utah and TCU and the rest of the conference. I don’t want to return to that.
I thought that forming a new conference would be cool, but the schools that BYU would invite: CSU, Fresno, etc all have a history of being abandoned by BYU in their quest to improve. I just don’t see those schools playing that game again.
If the Big 12 doesn’t take BYU, I suspect that the Cougars will end up going to the AAC as a football-only member with AFA. I can live with that, even though it is far from ideal.
It certainly hasn’t worked out the way they thought it would. BYU would have a very hard time winning the Mountain West Title in football. BYU was probably third best in the conference when they left, which is probably where they would be now. I’m not sure where the delusions of grandeur come from. 1984 was a long long time ago, and things worked a lot differently then. Other than completely secularizing the school, which seems to be out of the question to most, they’ll probably never be competitive again. Get used to the rare top 25 win and occasionally beating Utah because I think that’s as good as it’s gonna get. Even the top LDS athletes in the state are choosing Utah over BYU, for fairly obvious reasons.
It’s P5 or bust meaning we will have to crawl back to anyone who will take us. ESPN has already confirmed to our AD that the next contract will not be close to what the current one is, mainly based on the difficulty of BYU securing quality home opponents under the existing deal. ESPN is not willing to pay BYU for this continued product.
The BIG12 is still on the table, as is the PAC12, but both the MWC and AAC are also in the fall back plans. One thing is clear, Indy was a bust and the longer we tread water, the closer to drowning we get. Sure short term the TV deal paid a little more than MWC money, but lost shared conference revenue for BCS and NY6 bowls (MWC teams got shares while we were Indy) and the shared revenues difference for all other minor sports for MWC compared to WCC is almost doubled, it has been a poor financial decision.
Basically, some of our BOT members overvalued our program and misrepresented us in negotiations that would have us in a perfect spot, for this pipe dream of thinking BYUtv would somehow carry the program to new heights. It’s what happens when you let people who are not full time involved or invested to make decisions based on their limited viewpoint. At least they learned from this mistake, we just hope it wasn’t too late, but clearly cost BYU millions to date in revenue not to mention set all programs back 5-10 years in the process.
The expected changes in BOT in the next few years will help BYU in the end.