Oh No, not another Independence topic!

Yes, yes. I apologize in advance. First off, I have never thought independence was ever a good idea or even a remotely viable one, But a few things have come together that seem to point in that direction; starting here:



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/422231-could-byu-go-independent



We all know that going independent would be a scheduling nightmare, result in revenue streams much less than we currently make in the MWC and we'd be forced to sever our rivalry ties with....um...nevermind. or with...um...nevermind. Ok So we don't have a rival. In fact, a week after Frutah declared that their "obvious superiority" ( :roll: ) was being recognized by the Pac-XX, Holmoe inexplicably announced that "opportunities for BYU exist that didn't exist a week ago".



What did THAT mean? Could Utah have been our one, true tie to the MWC? Makes me wonder if there might have been some merit to that recent thread about an unspoken agreement existing between the two universities. Well, true or not, that loyalty is gone now.



So the article claims that BYU's new TV studio is the most sophisticated State of the art facility in the west. have you seen it? The thing is huge and looks like it belongs on Times Square. (Incidentally, Hollywood is also in the west, last I checked and might object to being labeled second behind a University...). The article wonders aloud what that facility will be used for if byuTV won't just be showing 1980 Holiday bowl re-runs, what ARE we going to be watching on BYUTV?



Just to compare, to watch the Cougars today, we need to get the MTN (mountain states only), Versus, ESPN, and ESPNU. That's a BYU-Flippin, freaking, gosh-darned nightmare, no casual fan would ever see all the games except through a Thousand channel miracle. BYUTV however in its current, non-profit, fully HD, nation/world-wide status distributes to 150 million homes. It doesn't take a genius to think BYU might be able to bridge that TV gap all on its own, and given our recent poor history with ESPN, I think BYU would LOVE to continue to avoid ESPN's terrible scheduling demands. Whether they choose to or not, BYU is building or already has the ability to broadcast all of our sporting events on our own like no University in the country. How much did Texas get for their upstart channel?



So BYU's building a massive, new Sports BroadcastingHD, state of the art TV Studio; so what? well, another one of Holmoe's points was that plans were laid " years before the recent conference shake-up" and that we're still in a great place and our future is exciting. huh? years before? Like the groundbreaking of a brand new TV studio? Sure sounds like that studio could be linked to their plans whatever they are.



SNO also brought up a good point in another thread that I've been thinking about: BYU might not be trying to make more than their MWC TV deal. What if they just had to break even? The church has never been about the all-mighty dollar otherwise they would have shut the university down years ago. and no tithing funds go to the Sports program -- its always been self-supporting. They might just be crazy enough to try something this bold.



Huge obstacles remain like Bowl-tie ins, and the scheduling nightmare but Notre Dame does it with one foot in the Big Least pool, and BYU soccer is a semi-pro team. Let's not be blind that options exist even when previous AD's have said it wasn't feasible then. We're certainly not ND or Texas, but we're probably more like them than any other university in the country.



Even more telling is Holmoe didn't say "no" when asked explicitly about going Independent. He never hesitated to clamp down on speculation in other directions. Why not this one? All of these sure paint an interesting picture about what "Exploring all of our options" just might entail. I'd love to hear if anyone has any other pieces that might fit this puzzle. It's hardly complete, but it just kind of clicked for me today.



discuss liberally, and then you may return to your normally scheduled off-season boredom.

I am all for BYU going Independent in Football, but not for any other sports. So if BYU can get in a conference for all sports except football, I think it could work just fine. We could make WAY more money with a football specific TV deal than what the MTN deal doles out for all sports, and still take in some for the other sports. The WAC might work, or even the West Coast Conference. This arrangement works for Notre dame, and like it or not, they are the model for this.

Lawboy wrote:
I am all for BYU going Independent in Football, but not for any other sports. So if BYU can get in a conference for all sports except football, I think it could work just fine. We could make WAY more money with a football specific TV deal than what the MTN deal doles out for all sports, and still take in some for the other sports. The WAC might work, or even the West Coast Conference. This arrangement works for Notre dame, and like it or not, they are the model for this.

Karl Benson already said the WAC would take BYU's other sports if Football went independent. Just saying...

I am 100% opposed to going independent. I believe the moment we do, is the moment we sign the death notice for all div 1a sports at BYU.

Well done Claw. Your post is very well thought out and well written. Good job. And I like the topic in the utter boredom that is summer sports.



I would just like to add my 2 cents to your post.

Makes me wonder if there might have been some merit to that recent thread about an unspoken agreement existing between the two universities. Well, true or not, that loyalty is gone now.

Wonder no more. I have had confirmation from the most reliable source in BYU athletics that there was an agreement between Utah and BYU. BYU administration was not happy at all by Utah breaking this agreement because BYU has stuck to this agreement many times in the past even when it was not in the best interests of BYU to do so.



My source put it this way. "The bright side is that BYU no longer has to protect Utah." And I believe that this is exactly what Holmoe was talking about when he said that doors have opened for BYU. BYU is no longer tied down to Utah. And I mean tied down.



As far as independence goes I do believe that BYU is seriously and aggressively exploring the independence option, for football only. The toughest part is figuring out scheduling. It would NOT be impossible for BYU to schedule 12 games a year, it would be difficult however.



ESPN would pick up 4, 5, 6, BYU games per year in a heartbeat. ESPN loves BYU. When the MWC sat down with ESPN to hash out a new deal the MWC was offended by how small the deal was for 8 teams. ESPN told the MWC essentially this "You don't understand, we are making this deal with the MWC to get BYU. We want BYU." That deal was small for 8 teams but large for BYU. The MWC declined and thus the MTN was born.



So between ESPN and BYU brodcasting showing games on TV would be a cakewalk for BYU. ALL of their games.



The WAC has said that they would be willing to take all the rest of the sports in football went independent. I believe that the MWC would accept the other BYU sports, especially mens basketball. The MWC would be stupid to let the other sports wander off to the WAC.

Personally, I always have liked the idea of BYU taking full advantage of its BYU-TV presence. There appear to be only three ways to accomplish this - two of which have been discussed in this thread:



1. Go independent totally

2. Go independent in football and stay in the MWC or go to another conference for all other sports



The third option would be to do the same thing Texas has done in the Big 12(10) - stay in the MWC and use BYU-TV/ESPN/?? to broadcast football, basketball, and what ever else sales athletically. Some would argue that a number of BYU championship sports teams are broadcastable.



I realize that this could hurt the MWC but not as much as BYU leaving for a more amicable and more accessible environment (I assume a Big 12(10) invite would allow BYU to do as Texas can). And, the MTN could always rebroadcast BYU content - with permi$$ion of course. There is the possibility that more notariety for BYU could translate into more opportunity for the MWC to AQ - or - for BYU to be invited to an AQ conference.



I don't think money has to be (or even is) the sole or major driving force - the more eyes see BYU in any context, the more opportunity for the "Spirit of the Y" to work. To quote Bleacher Report today:



"Many who serve on the BYU Board of Trustees won’t hesitate for a minute to point out how the success of the football program and overall athletic profile of the school has been an effective missionary tool for the LDS Church, but also has enabled the schools endowment fund to grow to the nearly $850 million level that it has become over the past 25 years. But on the other hand there might be others who will be concerned about a good thing becoming too big and overwhelming other neighboring schools. The question now is, with Utah having moved officially to the PAC-10 (12) starting in 2011, will that concern diminish to any degree?"

dsmith1212 wrote:
Personally, I always have liked the idea of BYU taking full advantage of its BYU-TV presence. There appear to be only three ways to accomplish this - two of which have been discussed in this thread:



1. Go independent totally

2. Go independent in football and stay in the MWC or go to another conference for all other sports



The third option would be to do the same thing Texas has done in the Big 12(10) - stay in the MWC and use BYU-TV/ESPN/?? to broadcast football, basketball, and what ever else sales athletically. Some would argue that a number of BYU championship sports teams are broadcastable.



I realize that this would hurt the MWC but not as much as BYU leaving for a more amicable and more accessible environment (I assume a Big 12(10) invite would allow BYU to do as Texas can). In fact, I believe that more notariety for BYU could translate into more opportunity for the MWC to AQ or for BYU to be invited to an AQ conference.



I don't think money has to be (or even is) the sole or major driving force - as mentioned above, the more eyes see BYU in any context, the more opportunity for the "Spirit of the Y" to work.

BYU-TV will not be the answer if you are talking money. BYU-TV owes its distribution to the fact it is a not-for-profit network. Federal regulations require television service providers to offer a certain number of non-profit or public-access channels based upon their total package offering. BYU-TV jumped on that bandwagon early on and has used that to get to where it is today.



If BYU-TV decided to change to a for-profit model, I wouldn't be surprised to see distribution drop by more than 50%--that would take the power of federal regulation off of the negotiating table and make it a strictly financial decision for the carriers who are already pressed for bandwidth.



However, there could be that middle ground--BYU gets their money from another network (ESPN/MTN/etc.), but they get next-day rebroadcast rights for those games on the non-profit BYU-TV (soon to be in HD), and any games that aren't picked up by a national network default to BYU-TV. Those 5 or so games could generate enough revenue to offset the MTN $$$ and allow them to run the BYU-TV games outside of a profit model--maintaining the non-profit structure. It's loony, but if BYU is more concerned with distribution and getting the university-product to more people, the BYU-TV solution might very well work out without the school taking an unworldly financial blow. It probably wouldn't overflow the coffers with cash, but I really think it would be doable if that is the university's priority.

From SCout.com:

New football recruit making a visit to BYU's campus. Lutui. Guess where they took him?

Scout.com wrote:
Among the sights that Lutui was able to see was BYU’s new three-story, 100,000-square-foot broadcasting building.



“They showed us the broadcasting department and supposedly they're number two in the nation right now," Lutui said. "It was really nice.

naturally the recruits are shown everyting, but we now know that the new TV center is on the FOOTBALL tour. I wonder if he got to see the #7 largest university BYU Library. Funny, that didn't get mentioned.



http://byu.scout.com/2/983705.html

The broadcast center is on the tour likely because it's the newest building on campus and pretty much right next door to the stadium.

BYUTV would be for games not picked up by ESPN or Fox or ABC or another major outlet - not for every game. It would basically replace the old KSL and/or Sportswest.



I used to think that ESPN really loved BYU - until they stuck the FSU/BYU game on ESPN U (what, they couldn't get the Grambling game?). Now I'm not so sure...

33311710 wrote:
BYUTV would be for games not picked up by ESPN or Fox or ABC or another major outlet - not for every game. It would basically replace the old KSL and/or Sportswest.

I think one huge thing is being missed here, and it is rebroadcast rights. BYU currently has NONE with the MTN deal, but I bet they could negotiate for those with ESPN or any other group. I do not see BYU-TV being the source to broadcast any game, but I do see it being a place where every game could be rebroadcast to reach its audience. It is not a money making venture, but a content delivery one.



BYU would have he TV rights for all home games, and could contract them off to ESPN. Road games would go to that home team, and neutral field games contracted out. ESPN loves those neutral field games, but would be happy to pick up 6 BYU football games per year at LES. Question is how much could they generate for each. If $500k, well that gives BYU 3x more revenue right off the top. The extra $2M, with rebroadcast rights, could make it work.