04/23/24
August 19, 2010
Paper: BYU Going Independent: Brigham Young is leaving the Mountain West Conference and will become an independent in football, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday. BYU's other sports will go back to the Western Athletic Conference. The move is based on the private school's belief that it can generate more revenue on its own TV network and help the Mormon church, Dan Wetzel writes. "Whether the Cougars can get enough name opponents to play them as this trend toward competitive cowardice continues is a major question mark."
The idea might be that "if it works for Notre Dame, it should work for us". Notre Dame manages to find quality opponents every year, although some of them are traditional (USC) and some are of lesser quality (Navy). There's no reason to expect that BYU won't do the same.
posted by Howard_T at 02:44 PM on August 19, 2010
WAC commissioner gripes about losing two teams to MWC. Two things I get from story.
1. Loss of the two teams could threaten deal between WAC and BYU.
2. Wah, wah, wah. We were trying to steal a team from MWC, but they stole two more of our teams instead. Wah, wah, waaaaaaahhh!
posted by graymatters at 06:57 PM on August 19, 2010
The remaining WAC members are Hawaii, Utah State, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State and Idaho.
I don't see how the WAC survives. I'd like to see the Sun Belt grab former members New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. The Belt's in better shape than what's left of the WAC, despite its famous name.
posted by rcade at 08:09 PM on August 19, 2010
If you're right, rcade, then odds seem very good that Utah State, San Jose State and Idaho go to the MWC and Hawaii makes 12 for the Pac-10.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:04 PM on August 20, 2010
Wouldn't Hawaii make 13? Or am I miscounting after addition of Colorado and Utah?
posted by graymatters at 08:35 PM on August 20, 2010
Did you miss the memo about switching to base 11 numbering?
posted by billsaysthis at 02:27 PM on August 21, 2010
If it happens, it will be interesting how it turns out. MWC loses Utah to new Big 12 and BYU to independence; adds Boise, Fresno and Nevada. With conference shifts that have already occurred and might continue, it looks like there may be more and more conference games and fewer and fewer non-conference games, so getting a quality schedule as an independent might be more and more difficult regardless of "competitive cowardice." WAC will be down to six teams in football, so unless expand they will be competing for a lot of those non-conference games as well. Watching to see what final shakeout is on conference alignments. It's not over yet.