Independence here we come?

Talk of independence has been around for a long time. BYU could never make the jump to independence with Utah still in the conference because we believed the relationship with them trumped our individual success. Obviously, Utah didn't have the same commitment to us. This article by Dick Harmon is quite interesting..



http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=272&sid=11802079



Nothing earth shattering, but thanks to Utah leaving we now have now reason to seriously explore going independent. We have the media facilities in place. There is no way we don't pull in more revenue in year one of independence then we currently get from the MWC.



And our schedule will only improve - at the very least we could still play TCU, BSU, Air Force and one or two other MWC teams every year (why wouldn't they play us when we offer them loads of money and they can be in HD throughout the country?). We could then easily schedule a couple of teams from Conference USA (i.e. Louisville), the Bid East and one or two from BCS conferences. I have been for independence for a long time. There is no way we get a worse then the MWC. And our exposure would be huge.



It's time to make the move. My guess is that BYU is in the midst of getting solid legal counsel concerning the use of BYU-TV in order to not put the church at any risk regarding tax status, control over advertising, etc. Once they get comfortable, I bet they take their royal flush and begin to contact the BCS conferences and ESPN to see if there is any interest in having us join their conference. If the answer is once again 'No', then we have no choice but to go independent. And I, for one, will consider it a great day to be a cougar fan.

What about other sports? Football seems like it would work but what about the other sports and scheduling?



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nogbody wrote:
What about other sports? Football seems like it would work but what about the other sports and scheduling?



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Simple. The other sports can stay in the MWC. The conference wouldn't like that, but they simply couldn't say no to keeping our other teams in the MWC because BYU is the pull for ALL sports. With Utah gone we now have complete say on what happens in the conference.

IIRC when the conf. signed the TV agreement, each University also signed the agreement so that they are bound by it individually as well as through conference affiliation. If this is correct, then the MTN still owns the rights to BYU home games.

I believe BYU will, in the end, have no choice. We see where Utah's "loyalty" lay--with the money, and that is true with everybody else too. Every conference is going to be annoyed with BYU's no sunday play policy, so I don't think BYU ever gets invited to any other conference, and ultimately BYU is better off going independent, they then control everything.



Yes, there will be scheduling challenges, there are now anyway. Yes, there are some downsides, minor sports might be affected--and frankly, who cares? And yes, BYU could stay in the MWC for everything but football.



ND works it this way, and it works for them.



At the end of the day, the Church (and BYU) are not going to allow anyone to tell them what to do (frankly, I love this attitude), and because of that, no conference is going to invite BYU. So independence is the logical choice. IF it doesn't happen sooner, it will happen later.

Harmon wrote a similar piece in 2007:



http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695205000,00.html?pg=1



Note the comment on page 2 that neither Utah nor BYU will ever get invited to a BCS conference.



In 2007, Harmon's point was that going independent - in football or totally - has hugh drawbacks.



I say that BYU should now use its clout (and TV channel) the way Texas wants to try. Interesting that Texas wants to have a BYU type channel and use it to promote and profit from its athletic program: it wants to be the BYU of the Big12(10). At the same time, BYU should use its muscle to become the Texas of the MWC.



There was a recent article that advises the Big12(10) to add BYU and use the Y's new broadcast facilites to launch the Big 12(10) network:



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/423182-why-the-big-12-needs-to-invite-byu



Maybe the MWC and the MTN need to court BYU's favor more? And do it soon?

I wonder how BYU makes money with BYU-TV broadcasting games. The reason BYU-TV is on the lowest tier of every cable and satellite system is because it's probably pretty inexpensive to carry (the whole non-profit part). I doubt BYU makes as much money as Texas would with it's own network. The nice thing is that the HD infrastructure is already in place to start doing this today.

Harmon's article sounds not all unlike the thread I started a few weeks ago.



http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3757



Toot. Toot. Toot. why yes, that is my own horn. Thanks for asking.

and Dear mr. Harmon, I wrote it first. ya darhty theef!