Let's just get this out of the way

[ABYUFAN]

Arizona was 1-9 in the Pac12 last year, Michigan State 1-8 in the Big10 and Miss State 3-5 in the SEC. Nothing to chirp about.

Context my friend, no one's bragging about beating these teams - the point is that these teams are P5 teams and BYU beat them. Not all P5 teams are an automatic loss. Another message is that Michigan State and Nebraska are likely not on BYU's schedule if BYU is in a G5 conference.

SO the two options in my mind are:


1) G5 conference for less money and playing games on Facebook live, all for the opportunity to win a Conference Championship, so we can have another "conference Championship" banner that no one looks at, and print up another "Conference Championship" t-shirt that 4 people buy... or

2) Independent in football, and a membership in the WCVC for other sports for more money, more time on TV admittedly more losses on national TV - but the chance for special wins against nationally named teams

[Ygridiron4ever]

SO the two options in my mind are:


1) G5 conference for less money and playing games on Facebook live, all for the opportunity to win a Conference Championship, so we can have another "conference Championship" banner that no one looks at, and print up another "Conference Championship" t-shirt that 4 people buy... or

2) Independent in football, and a membership in the WCVC for other sports for more money, more time on TV admittedly more losses on national TV - but the chance for special wins against nationally named teams

Either way, were on the outside looking in. And that is likely our lot, unless or until the P5 landscape experiences a big change.

And I wish it were different.

I do believe that if/when we are asked to join, we will likely not win a conference for a long, long time. I still wish we were in a conference, even if we are not the best in the conference. My estimate is that 75% of the pre-season talk was about conferences, not teams. Debates about which conference is stronger, top -to-bottom, etc. And if BYU were in one of those conferences they would make a conference stronger overall.

And while some discussion in this thread talks about Utah not getting more money from their affiliation, I get the sense that money or not, PAC-12 membership has had a huge impact on recruiting.

But I'm just venting, and I'll never stop rooting for the cougars!!

[snoscythe]

BYU does not and will not reveal financial information about the athletic department.

Absolutely not true. They have to disclose information to the Department of Education, who then posts it here: https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/

It doesn't give you individual level data, but you definitely get the revenue vs. expense figures lawngnome was asking for.

For the last reporting period available (2015), BYU's athletic department reported $62,563,279 in revenues and $54,429,683 in expenses.

For the same year, Utah's athletic department reported $70,346,405 in revenues, and $65,328,348 in expenses.

[Woody3715]

No matter which figures you use, there isn't a big money difference between BYU and U of Utah.

Its coaching and recruiting that are the difference. Some Cougar fans like to think of BYU as the LDS Notre Dame. Well, 2 of ND's 3 greatest coaches were not Catholic when ND hired them: Knute Rockne was Lutheran (but converted to Catholic after 7 years at ND) and Ara Parseghian was a devout Presbyterian. Each was an outstanding and devout person. I don't think hiring either of them compromised Notre Dame's Catholic mission.

[Mars]

I'm really not sure what your point is Woody. Either way, Go Cougars, beat the Yewts!

[KingCoug]

Just out of curiosity I looked at how BYU has done against BCS/P5 teams since the start of the BCS era in 1998. We're something like 33-26.

[Woody3715]

I'm really not sure what your point is Woody. Either way, Go Cougars, beat the Yewts!

The point is that BYU has a policy that the head coaches of the football and basketball programs have to be LDS. That's an extremely small pool for football. The Cougars are not going to get Andy Reid to leave the Kansas City Chiefs or Kyle Whittingham to leave Utah. Unlikely to get Darrell Bevel, offensive coordinator of the Seahawks, to leave the NFL since he's going to be a head coach one day. Probably can't get Brian Billick back into coaching at the college level. The Cougars could try to get Mike Leach from Washington State or Ed Niumatalolo from Navy. But there aren't many other LDS coaches out there even at the co-ordinator level.

My point is that if BYU wants to have a successful football program, they may need to get a non-LDS head coach. He must be a religious, devout person, but probably not LDS. I used Notre Dame's hiring of Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian above as an example of a comparable religious affiliated university that has successfully gone outside of its faith to hire a successful coach without hurting its faith mission..

[Mars]

Probably not gonna happen.

[Gunk]

BYU is losing fans. Seasons are boring and uneventful. We can barely compete with middle of the row P5 teams.

Either make significant changes or join a conference. What we have now isn't working.

[BoiseBYU]

BYU does not and will not reveal financial information about the athletic department.

Absolutely not true. They have to disclose information to the Department of Education, who then posts it here: https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/

It doesn't give you individual level data, but you definitely get the revenue vs. expense figures lawngnome was asking for.

For the last reporting period available (2015), BYU's athletic department reported $62,563,279 in revenues and $54,429,683 in expenses.

For the same year, Utah's athletic department reported $70,346,405 in revenues, and $65,328,348 in expenses.

Can I ask your or anyone's help? Can you point me to a place establishing hat BYU's athletic revenue is not dependent upon or in receipt of tihes? I have read that over the year but could not find a link substantiating this. Any help is much appreciated. I have a person claiming and objecting to the expendiure of tithes on BYU football. I want to refute that.