ESPN Covering BYU

So I finally made the switch over from CB. Been reading both now for about two weeks and was just not getting the need fulfilled anymore with all you guys over here posting and the ghost town at CB. If you are wondering why it took me so long, I just finished up MBA school and was out of if for the most part over the last 3 years.



Anyhow, If this has been posted already I apologize. I was watching sports center last night and saw them give some good coverage to BYU and talking about Bronco officially going with the 2 QB system for this season. Now I know this is not news to any of us, but why all the sudden would ESPN cover BYU's QB situation in a fair amount of detail unless they indeed have made the deal and are staring to press their new product? Maybe the deal was not done, but ESPN thought that a bit of prime time coverage would help them take the jump to independent.



Who actually knows, but the longer time passes without an announcement, the stronger I believe our chances of an independent announcement by this Tuesday the 31st as to not give Hair any time to react at all.



Rise and Shout . . . Can't wait for the season to begin.

If you do go indy, which conference do you think you will end up with? WAC or WCC?



If the WCC, wouldn't you be bored every week playing a bunch of D2 schools? Would indy football be worth it?

PurpleReign wrote:
If you do go indy, which conference do you think you will end up with? WAC or WCC?



If the WCC, wouldn't you be bored every week playing a bunch of D2 schools? Would indy football be worth it?

Is that why Washington stopped playing WCC in basketball? Or is it because of other reasons?









I actually have no idea if you play wcc in b-ball it just sounded like a good dis.

Yeah, Bball team does play some teams from WCC, also the B12 plus some choice opponents to fill out the OOC schedule. But two games each against the PAC10 conference, you would be playing the bulk of your schedule against the WCC in Bball and probably 4 or 5 WCC games in football form what I understand.



Not sure why you are looking for a dis, my comments were not a dis, but a serious question. For example I hate the fact we are playing Eastern Washington and Portland State soon in football, I wont even bother buying tickets to those games.



Would you rather stay in the MWC or go to the WAC over the WCC? I guess you could fill out the rest of your schedule with good opponents if you were indy. Anyways, just curious why you are even considering the WCC, seems like a step down to me.

PurpleReign wrote:
If you do go indy, which conference do you think you will end up with? WAC or WCC?



If the WCC, wouldn't you be bored every week playing a bunch of D2 schools? Would indy football be worth it?

The million dollar question, I don't know, but my gut is telling me more and more that we are going independent. Don't know what combination comes along with it, but seems as if several key items are coming together at the same time to point to that outcome. A few of those being:

- Recent prime time coverage on ESPN last night of BYU

- Texas signing home and home games with us

- BYU being totally silent after the WAC leak

- Noter Dame indicating interest in playing us late in the season

- Among others



If I were Tom or the administration, I would not make an announcement Monday; rather, I would make the announcement Tuesday the 31st at like 4:30 p.m. so as to not allow the MWC anytime to spoil our plans again. Also this feeds well into BYU's silence as they might already have as good of if not better plan than the original WAC deal already set in place, and don't want to run the risk of Hair and the clowns blowing it up again.



If you don't hear anything Monday, probability of this scenario goes up even higher...



I would be interested to hear others thoughts.

The WCC sent as many teams to the dance as the PAC. Also, perhaps we'll actually get some love from ESPN if they start covering us because they'll want people to watch us.

No WCC football games, as they don't have football. BBall would definitely be a step down as would the WAC for BBall (especially after losing NV and Fresno). I don't think the rest of the sports would make that much of a difference. BBall is definitely the biggest risk for negative fallout, but with the current TV/MWC situation I think the risk is worth it and the upside is huge. Hopefully as a partner with ESPN we would be able to get a much stronger preconference BBall schedule as well which would make it somewhat bearable whereever the BBall team ends up. overall, though, if everything works out as well as anticipated financially, BYU will likely end up in a deal with the Big 12 within 2-3 years.

PurpleReign wrote:
If you do go indy, which conference do you think you will end up with? WAC or WCC?

WCC for non-football sports, of course. Sorry women's softball. The WAC is dead.

PurpleReign wrote:
If the WCC, wouldn't you be bored every week playing a bunch of D2 schools?

This no different than the MWC as presently constituted. Okay. UNLV excepted in basketball only. TCU plays some pretty good baseball.

PurpleReign wrote:
Would indy football be worth it?

*cough* The only way you understand how silly this question is is if you've ever watched BYU football on the Mtn. I rest my case.

Its not just that they have talked about the QB situation. When they talked up Max Hall last game, they mentioned what a great school BYU is. I have noticed it here and there, where previously it was mums the word about anything BYU. There has to be a deal in place for BYU to keep coming up on ESPN.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:

*cough* The only way you understand how silly this question is is if you've ever watched BYU football on the Mtn. I rest my case.

My wife walked in while I was watching a football game last year and said "is this a high school game?"



MTN sucks.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
Its not just that they have talked about the QB situation. When they talked up Max Hall last game, they mentioned what a great school BYU is. I have noticed it here and there, where previously it was mums the word about anything BYU. There has to be a deal in place for BYU to keep coming up on ESPN.

ESPN has talked up BYU quarterbacks in the past. They said very good things about John Beck during his draft. Also, lets not forget that college gameday was broadcast from Provo last year even if Corso did pick the horned frogs. I think we would still be getting similar coverage even without the potential for a BYU & ESPN TV deal. After all, Heaps is the number QB from his recruiting class nationwide.

Yeah, BYU going independent is reasonably big college football news this time of year when everyone is in fall camp. I imagine ESPN would report it regardless of some pending deal.