M
MarsEarly this morning, they were discussing the topic of how BYU football compares to the PAC-12. They stated that Utah football, for example, has "2.5 times the depth that BYU has", or "about 20 more Div. I-A talented players on the team overall". They then stated that if BYU joined the PAC-12, it would take over a decade of intense recruiting to have a single season with more conference wins than losses, and that BYU would NEVER be able to play with the "big boys" of college football within the league "like USC and UCLA".
They also stated that while BYU has an "extremely weak" schedule this year, Utah doesn't have a single easy conference game to play this season.
Well then...
I'll start with the schedules.
BYU plays 7 former "BCS" teams this year, 5 of them on the road: UConn, Texas, Houston, Virginia, UCF, Cal, and Boise State. 3 of those are current "Power 5" conference members (Big XII/ACC/PAC-12), and 2 of those will be played away from Provo.
-Texas -Week 2- is on the road. Despite a blowout loss to BYU, the Longhorns won 8 games last year and went 7-2 in Big XII play, including a beatdown of #12 Oklahoma. They played in the Alamo Bowl.
-Virginia was 2-10 last year, which is good enough for SEC and ACC schedulers, but admittedly not a great opponent for BYU.
-At Cal. Another road game. The Bears of the PAC-12 were a weak 1-11 last season (but didn't get to play Utah).
-UConn is BYU's opener, on the road. Anything can happen in these games. They went 3-9 last season after winning their last 3 contests.
-Houston of the AAC was a surprise team last year, going 8-3 in the regular season besides the home loss to BYU.
-UCF was an even bigger surprise, and again this is a road game. The Knights were 12-1 last season (winning @ Penn State, beating #8 Louisville and Terry Bridgewater on the road, and scoring 52 points in a smackdown of #6 Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl); Remember, EVERY team in the PAC-12 finished with at least 2 losses last year.
-Boise State lost at BYU last season, but went 8-3 in the rest of their regular season. This game is at Boise.
The other games of some interest include Utah State (an in-state "rival"), UNLV (a former conference-mate of both BYU and Utah), Nevada (a current MWC team), and MTSU. The Aggies lost badly to BYU last year, but still won 9 games, including their bowl game. They lost 1 conference game in the regular season, and played in their conference championship game. UNLV won 7 games in the regular season and actually played in a bowl game. Nevada won 4 games last year, losing out-of-conference to Florida State, UCLA, and BYU. MTSU went 8-3 in the regular season besides a loss at BYU. BYU also plays Savannah State, just as Utah plays Idaho State; Most strong schools do the same.
Overall, BYU plays 7 teams that won at least 7 games last season and made it to a bowl game. 6 teams on the schedule (50%) won at least 8 games, 2 teams won 9 or more games, and one team that won 12 games. Not the world's toughest schedule, but not an awful schedule either.
As for BYU versus the PAC-12? Let's take a quick look at Sagarin:
BYU was #35 in 2013, better than 3 of 12 PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #26 in 2012, better than 6 of 12 PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #34 in 2011, better than 9 of 12 PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #45 in 2010, better than 3 of 12 current PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #15 in 2009, better than 11 of 12 current PAC-12 teams. BYU was 11-2, #11 Oregon was 10-3.
BYU was #32 in 2008, better than 6 of 12 current PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #17 in 2007, better than 8 of 12 current PAC-12 teams.
BYU was #13 in 2006, better than 10 of 12 current PAC-12 teams. BYU was 11-2, #2 USC was 11-2, and #8 Cal was 10-3.
So out of the past 8 seasons, BYU was a "top half" PAC-12 team 6 times (75%), a "top third" PAC-12 team 4 times (50%), and a "top fourth" PAC-12 team 3 times (38%). Two of those season BYU would have been battling for the Championship crown (25% of the time).
In other words, those 1320 sports radio guys were talking out of their butts. Big surprise.