BYU wants to feel the Power (...of a P5 Conf)
BYU doesn't want to be independent anymore.
Big XII seems logical, if they can find a XIIth too, but the article says the conference isn't interested (at the moment). More interestingly, BYU seems to think another wave of realignment is in the near future... not sure what's left to move...
But if this is in the works, can I ask ... can B1G trade Rutgers and Maryland for BYU? Pleez?
February 25th, 2015 at 6:40 PM ^
Congrats to you as well, Ty Butterfield.
February 25th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^
"Unfortunately, their message doesn't always resonate with the modern player." LOL what? College football is definitely not any dirtier than it used to be. You think hostesses and money changing hands is new? Players getting away with things they shouldn't? You know how 'roided up a lot of teams were in the past?
February 25th, 2015 at 2:08 PM ^
I get it, the Mountain West isn't a "Power 5" Conference ------ but God, I detest that "Power 5" verbiage. We should view college football in terms of the best TEAMS, not the best conferences.
In 2009, I would have taken Boise State from the "lowly" WAC over any team in America besides Alabama. IMO, they WERE that good.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^
I thought BYU had an internal rule prohibiting playing sports on Sunday. While that's not an issue for football, most other sports do schedule Sunday games and for some of the minor sports, playing on Sunday is a near necessity.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:53 PM ^
I was going to mention this as well: the "no Sundays" rule that they have plays hell with minor sports. Baseball and Softball series have to be Thursday-Friday-Saturday instead of Friday through Sunday. Conference tournaments in soccer have to have Thursday semifinals and Saturday finals instead of Friday semis and Sunday finals.
I would think it wouldn't be worth it for a major conference to re-arrange their entire calendar just because of this limitation, especially since it means a huge increase in missed class time for some sports.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^
neither will go to the B1G. ACC is done expanding. Who is left for them to take even remotely close? UConn? Cincinnati? Go after West Virginia? Not many options for them
February 25th, 2015 at 6:35 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 7:24 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^
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February 25th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^
they can play by the same rules everyone else does, or not play at all.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^
Well if BYU really wants into a league, they've given up their power in the negotiation. If it's a deal breaker for leagues they'll either cave and play on Sunday or they'll remain an independent
February 25th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 3:14 PM ^
but weird sports do.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
While BYU would likely have to give up its ESPN deal if it joins a Power Five conference, the conference revenue would more than make up for the loss of the ESPN revenue.
This prospect alone probably makes it worth it for them, and indeed, it might even be the main driver. Holmoe even talks about the fiscal disparities between BYU and comparable Power 5 schools in the full Deseret News article. He also talks quite a bit about putting together schedules to help them be successful, something which is increasingly easier achieved if you're part of a conference, it seems.
February 25th, 2015 at 2:35 PM ^
$5 says the Big 12 picks up BYU and Houston to get to 12
February 25th, 2015 at 2:40 PM ^
Cinncinatti and BYU would make sense to the Big 12 to me, I think
February 25th, 2015 at 4:35 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 2:47 PM ^
SI, I think, had an article about BYU called "Brigham Old" some time ago. Don't have time to find it or link it. Anyway, the article chronicled the impact of missions and how these kids go on missions and come back years later with eligibility as men and compete against kids just out of high school on the grid iron, etc. Thus the article title "Brigham Old".
So, they can develop their players over several years and in a different way than most programs. I suspect they will continue to be competitive for that reason regardless of where they go.
My two cents.
February 25th, 2015 at 4:05 PM ^
To be fair, they don't exactly have the facilities or time to train for major college football while they are doing their missions. It's not like BYU is stashing kids in Belize so they can bulk up for the big leagues.
February 25th, 2015 at 8:06 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^
You've got
Arizona and Arizona State
Washington and Washington State
Oregon and Oregon State
Just bring in Colorado State or Utah State with you to pair up with Colorado or Utah and bring the conference to 14 teams like the B1G.
February 25th, 2015 at 3:37 PM ^
it mainly has to do with new TV markets that a conference could bring in. None of the schools you list would allow the Pac-12 to enter new TV markets. So more then more likely the TV revenue of the conference wouldn't go up but the amount of schools dividing up the revenue would increase. I doubt the Pac-12 is interested in any of those schools.
February 25th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^
why would you want your schedules watered down with Colorado St or Utah St? Or have three Utah schools? BYU needs to find a comference that will accept them for just football, like the old Big East used to do.
The Big XII would seem to be the only realistic spot among the power 5, since only they have reason to expand for expansion's sake. I don't like the argument that lacking a championship game kept them out of the playoffs. It could just as easily go the other way this season. TCU and Baylor would surely be in the same division. There might have been an upset anyway.
The most correctable reason they were left out were were their horrible non-conference schedules. Baylor played only cupcakes. They deserved to be snubbed for that alone.
February 25th, 2015 at 5:45 PM ^
they're not great options. I was thinking more about travel logistics. In basketball, it's common for schools to get paired up so you make a road trip to two geographically similar schools. You go play ASU on Thursday night and then Arizona on Saturday. That's the only thing I was getting at. Colorado St. has more panache - for lack of a better word - than Utah State, but both are sub Pac 12 standard. I'm not sure who BYU could pair up with. It seems like these things come in pairs due to scheduling headaches with odd numbers. Do any of these schools fit the bill:
Fresno St., UNLV, Gonzaga (no football, so no.), Nevada, Boise St.? It's really slim pickings unless the Pac wants to really expand their footprint with a Texas-like school, but I can't see the Longhorns moving west out of the conference they own to one where they would be treated as an equal.
February 25th, 2015 at 6:16 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^
They play football and would bring a unique prestige to the conference.
February 25th, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 4:18 PM ^
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February 25th, 2015 at 4:20 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^
MD is a founder of the ACC. They are a southern school, their history is tied with VA, Duke, NC, Wake, etc. The campus looks like a southern school, not a B1G school. (It's not the greatest campus, at that -- not a pretty location, merges with pretty boring PG County, and frankly, if you wander a couple blocks the wrong way you better be packing.) They have no football identity, no one in the DC area gives a crap about MD football. It's historically a hoops program, more comperable to Indiana, but its hoops identity is 100% ACC. And it's great in other sports that the B1G basically is not good in at all, for the most part.
It's a square peg in a round hole.
February 25th, 2015 at 4:32 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 5:00 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 5:48 PM ^
those two make perfect sense. We can jetison underacheiving schools like MSU and NU ( the one in Nebraska, not the one that is the highest ranked school in the B1G academically )
February 25th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 8:26 PM ^
make the Big Ten go past 14? Those kind of moves aren't going to negatively impact the ACC.
February 25th, 2015 at 4:56 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 4:57 PM ^
February 25th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
Income disparity and difficulty putting together a football schedule are certainly part of the formula. I imagine BYU also thinks being in a conference would help their chances in a four-team post season set up. Given what happened last year for the Big XII with Baylor and TCU being shut out from the football playoff, I can see what Brigham Young is reaching out to them (beyond the geography and the simple fact that the Pac 12 isn't likely to add them as a member under most any circumstances).
At the minimum, I can certainly see what they want the Power 5 conferences to consider them a major independent in the same category as Notre Dame. It would certainly help them if the SEC were to do so because it'd open up most teams for BYU to add to their schedule.
That said, the really big problem BYU will have is the same one that ND use to experience before it became a semi-independent and contracted with the ACC to play five games a year against that conference. It'll be tough for the Cougars to get late season games against Power 5 teams. Couple that with the push towards a nine-game conference schedule (Pac 12, Big XII have then now, Big Ten in 2016, five ACC teams per year play ND as a "non-conference" game), and it'll be even tougher for BYU to get games on their football schedule.
We'll see what happens. Brigham Young was the Notre Dame replacement for the 2015 season when the Irish cancelled the series. Brandon already had the Utah, Oregon State and UNLV on the schedule--those games were announced in June 2012.
Other Notre Dame replacements Brandon arranged were Virginia Tech/Washington (2020/1), UCLA (2022/3), Oklahoma (2024/7) and Texas (2025/6). He also scheduled the home-and-home with Arkansas (2018/9), but that was before ND cancelled the series with UM.
If BYU QB Taysom Hill is back at full speed from his injury last year, then watch out. He's one hell of a football player. He'd be one of seventeen returning starters for the 2015 squad.
February 25th, 2015 at 7:50 PM ^
in the wake of the Paterno/Sandusky scandal. Still bitter those climbers used B1G admittance to legitimize their program and school - which was built on Paterno ego and lies. Then the B1G commish wouldn't have been able to strong-arm the presidents into adding RU and MD by leveraging the prospect of "losing PSU".
Those 3 eastern schools don't fit the picture and have ruined league play in football and basketball. The whole thing is just embarassing.
February 25th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
If you're gonna criticize at least be accurate. Maryland has the most recent national title in the B1G in basketball and is a solid school. Rutgers is meh. PSU was kind of a no brainer when looking at te college football climate.
February 25th, 2015 at 9:47 PM ^
Penn State didn't need B1G admittance to "legitimize" either their program (2 National Titles in the 1980s) or the school (AAU school since 1958).
I like Michigan, it's good company for Penn State to keep, but the arrogance drips noticeably from your post.
February 25th, 2015 at 11:40 PM ^
Arrogance drip acknowledged: Late! Durn, I guess I still haz some unresolved issues about the new East Wing of the B1G, and our being stuffed into it.
I'll go back to just mumbling to myself . . .
February 25th, 2015 at 9:52 PM ^
Makes so much sense...they basically got left out of the playoff for not having 12 and a tournament. Take BYU and Cincy and call it a day. Makes too much sense.
But the Big XII pride will get in the way because when they were on their death bed they were BEGGING BYU to join and the Cougs gave them the morman finger.
February 26th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
The Big XII could just as easily have a team knocked out of the playoffs for losing a CCG. It could even have happened last year since TCU and Baylor would have been in the same division. It will be funny when it happens the year they expand.
The Big XII really needs to address their non-conference scheduling. Baylor's was an absolute joke. If they had played anyone, they would have gotten in.
February 25th, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
I think the Big XII will probably look towards BYU and Cincy when they move to expand. The lack of a conf. title game in football could seriously hurt them as bad as it did this year. They could've had a really good haul 2-3 years ago and grabbed Cincy/Louisville to pair with West Virginia.
As far as the ACC, when the whole realignment thing happened, I thought I read the ACC schools signed a pretty restrictive agreement with harsh financial penalities if they left the conference over the next 10-15 years.