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YzzazzI am for one am relieved that the Big 12 did not decide to invite BYU into the conference. I think it is actually better for them in the long run.
Sure the obvious benefits are there: money in the short term, fun games, and the biggie--the possibility of getting into the playoffs with one loss.
That being said, I think the Big 12 would end up dragging the BYU program down. It is possible that the Big 12 may languish in the years to come and that being part of them will be a liability (recall the fate of the Big East). Given what title IX and some political activism can do to a football program nowadays, only the strongest, big-money conferences are invulnerable from being weakened--the Big 12 presidents showed yesterday that they don't know how to make that happen for themselves.
I mean imagine just one thing: adding Notre Dame. Yeah I know ND has prohibitive agreements with the ACC etc., but for the right amounts of money any agreement can be rewritten. If Notre Dame's TV money were added into the deal, ESPN and Fox would have been heavily pressuring the league to expand instead of doing the opposite. So why didn't someone make THAT happen? Because ultimately that would have had to become a detriment to ND's cashflow and ND would have said no.
So bottom line the expansion died because the TV execs knew it was a proposition which would cost them big time and the Big 12 presidents couldn't think of a way to turn up enough money to recompense the networks. Now given that reality, what solution out there would have made it possible for BYU to be in the Big 12 that didn't somehow take away from BYU's own potential with its own network? The answer is there wasn't one, so the only way BYU gets in is if something were to happen to make BYU help pay for its own inclusion. Then we're back to the MWC days. If that's how unattractive the Big12 is, then their long-term future is bleak.
I think BYU might have just avoided winning a ticket on the Titanic!
Tom Holmoe said in an interview this week that scheduling has become easier for BYU, so maintaining this level of competition is achievable year after year. With a schedule like this one, an independent can actually make the playoffs on its own. I think the future is brightest for BYU down this path--uncertain though it may be.
I really like the idea that a future BYU could play six P5 teams a year from three different conferences. It seems interesting that BYU could be a lynch-pin in the comparison of teams towards the end of the season--kind of like college football's yearly Kevin Bacon index.
All in all, I think independence suits BYU best because academia is becoming very politicized. The gay thing was not a big factor this time around (despite how much they want to make noise to the contrary), but it could very well become a roadblock in the future. ESPN will go where the money is. If BYU draws, ESPN will pay to produce their events. Independence is the best way to monetize that over the long term.
Sure the obvious benefits are there: money in the short term, fun games, and the biggie--the possibility of getting into the playoffs with one loss.
That being said, I think the Big 12 would end up dragging the BYU program down. It is possible that the Big 12 may languish in the years to come and that being part of them will be a liability (recall the fate of the Big East). Given what title IX and some political activism can do to a football program nowadays, only the strongest, big-money conferences are invulnerable from being weakened--the Big 12 presidents showed yesterday that they don't know how to make that happen for themselves.
I mean imagine just one thing: adding Notre Dame. Yeah I know ND has prohibitive agreements with the ACC etc., but for the right amounts of money any agreement can be rewritten. If Notre Dame's TV money were added into the deal, ESPN and Fox would have been heavily pressuring the league to expand instead of doing the opposite. So why didn't someone make THAT happen? Because ultimately that would have had to become a detriment to ND's cashflow and ND would have said no.
So bottom line the expansion died because the TV execs knew it was a proposition which would cost them big time and the Big 12 presidents couldn't think of a way to turn up enough money to recompense the networks. Now given that reality, what solution out there would have made it possible for BYU to be in the Big 12 that didn't somehow take away from BYU's own potential with its own network? The answer is there wasn't one, so the only way BYU gets in is if something were to happen to make BYU help pay for its own inclusion. Then we're back to the MWC days. If that's how unattractive the Big12 is, then their long-term future is bleak.
I think BYU might have just avoided winning a ticket on the Titanic!
Tom Holmoe said in an interview this week that scheduling has become easier for BYU, so maintaining this level of competition is achievable year after year. With a schedule like this one, an independent can actually make the playoffs on its own. I think the future is brightest for BYU down this path--uncertain though it may be.
I really like the idea that a future BYU could play six P5 teams a year from three different conferences. It seems interesting that BYU could be a lynch-pin in the comparison of teams towards the end of the season--kind of like college football's yearly Kevin Bacon index.
All in all, I think independence suits BYU best because academia is becoming very politicized. The gay thing was not a big factor this time around (despite how much they want to make noise to the contrary), but it could very well become a roadblock in the future. ESPN will go where the money is. If BYU draws, ESPN will pay to produce their events. Independence is the best way to monetize that over the long term.