BYU Football success or failure as an independent?

I just posted on the Conference envy topic and made the comment that I wont have conference envy if BYU Football is a success as an independent and then I got wondering what should be considered a success in your opinions? What has Bronco said that I missed on this topic? Is it critical to get to a BCS bowl on a regular basis? Will consistent 10-2 type seasons with a low to mid tier bowl be a considered a success? At what point would independence be a failure?I am interested in your thoughts.

I think on a base level independence is already a success. BYU went independent to increase exposure. I believe that exposure was first and foremost directed to the LDS base/BYU alumni. The people who already care about BYU will now have a much easier time accessing BYU. Performance on the field will matter if BYU wants to grow the brand within the base, but as long as BYU has decent success they will meet their primary target of increasing their stature among the faithful.



Increasing exposure, and therefore stature, nationally begins and ends with how well BYU does on the biggest stage namely the BCS. Being on ESPN is nice, but if BYU continues to be average to below average against the best teams in the country then not many people outside of the faith/alumni will give a flying flip about BYU.



If BYU goes 10-3 this year with a bowl win over Tulane in the Helicopter Bowl but loses to Ole Miss, Texas, and TCU yet finishes ranked #24 in the country in both polls that would be a success in terms of exposure part 1 (Alumni and people of the faith), but a failure with regard to exposure part 2 (national exposure). Piling up wins over SJSU, NMSU, and Utah culminating in a lower tier bowl makes the fanbase generally happy, but it doesn't move the meter at all with the casual college football fan.



If BYU wants to increase national exposure they need to consistently win BCS games. It isn't enough to go to and win just one. One BCS game means you're Kansas or Louisville and what is their national brand in football? Exactly.



That means in order to get to BCS games BYU needs to go undefeated in the regular season or be 11-1 with a couple of good wins, or 10-2 seasons with HUGE wins. That means BYU cannot win only 8 games in the next 20 years against teams that finished ranked like they have in the last 20. BYU can no longer go 0-19-1 vs. teams that finish in the top 10 which is their record over the last 20 years. BYU cannot go 9-11 vs. Utah over the next two decades like they did the last two decades (unless Utah morphs into USC). Bottom line, we just need to keep doing what we have been doing for this to be successful for our fans, but to substantially increase our brand nationally we need to be better than we have ever been.

mormonrasta wrote:
I think on a base level independence is already a success. BYU went independent to increase exposure. I believe that exposure was first and foremost directed to the LDS base/BYU alumni. The people who already care about BYU will now have a much easier time accessing BYU. Performance on the field will matter if BYU wants to grow the brand within the base, but as long as BYU has decent success they will meet their primary target of increasing their stature among the faithful.



Increasing exposure, and therefore stature, nationally begins and ends with how well BYU does on the biggest stage namely the BCS. Being on ESPN is nice, but if BYU continues to be average to below average against the best teams in the country then not many people outside of the faith/alumni will give a flying flip about BYU.



If BYU goes 10-3 this year with a bowl win over Tulane in the Helicopter Bowl but loses to Ole Miss, Texas, and TCU yet finishes ranked #24 in the country in both polls that would be a success in terms of exposure part 1 (Alumni and people of the faith), but a failure with regard to exposure part 2 (national exposure). Piling up wins over SJSU, NMSU, and Utah culminating in a lower tier bowl makes the fanbase generally happy, but it doesn't move the meter at all with the casual college football fan.



If BYU wants to increase national exposure they need to consistently win BCS games. It isn't enough to go to and win just one. One BCS game means you're Kansas or Louisville and what is their national brand in football? Exactly.



That means in order to get to BCS games BYU needs to go undefeated in the regular season or be 11-1 with a couple of good wins, or 10-2 seasons with HUGE wins. That means BYU cannot win only 8 games in the next 20 years against teams that finished ranked like they have in the last 20. BYU can no longer go 0-19-1 vs. teams that finish in the top 10 which is their record over the last 20 years. BYU cannot go 9-11 vs. Utah over the next two decades like they did the last two decades (unless Utah morphs into USC). Bottom line, we just need to keep doing what we have been doing for this to be successful for our fans, but to substantially increase our brand nationally we need to be better than we have ever been.

Mormonrasta thanks for the comment enjoyed it.Would enjoy hearing some more thoughts on this.

In one respect, football independence cannot and will not be successful until it wins a second national championship. It is the program's goal.

SpiffCoug wrote:
In one respect, football independence cannot and will not be successful until it wins a second national championship. It is the program's goal.

True, it's one of the goals, but in another respect it's already successful because it has already gotten the school lots more exposure than we had in all our years in the MWC.

Just win baby. BSU, Utah, and TCU showed how it is done. They increased their national brand and exposure. They did not over schedule and therefore they went undefeated multiple times. In fact UH even increased their brand, though not as much. But they started lower and lost the BCS Bowl game. BYU missed a huge opportunity because we used to be ahead of all of those programs in national reputation and largely on the back of our 1984 undefeated season against WAC teams mostly.



We need to quit giving up home field advantage and over scheduling. Undefeated seasons will spell success. A couple of those and our recruiting stock will increase and maybe some teams will come to Provo - although success will get in the way of that. The great programs do not need money or exposure and want to keep what they have so risking a loss in Provo does not rank high on their scheduling priorities. They may stop playing us altogether if we start winning those type of games with any consistency.



Utah and TCU are about to experience what a few more losses each year will do to brand recognition. BSU has started to take schedule risk. Too much of it and it will be some other MWC or Conf USA darling going undefeated. Louisville, UW, and even Notre Dame are programs that really hurt their brand due to over scheduling.



Just win baby



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Cougarbib2 wrote:
Just win baby. BSU, Utah, and TCU showed how it is done. They increased their national brand and exposure. They did not over schedule and therefore they went undefeated multiple times. In fact UH even increased their brand, though not as much. But they started lower and lost the BCS Bowl game. BYU missed a huge opportunity because we used to be ahead of all of those programs in national reputation and largely on the back of our 1984 undefeated season against WAC teams mostly.



We need to quit giving up home field advantage and over scheduling. Undefeated seasons will spell success. A couple of those and our recruiting stock will increase and maybe some teams will come to Provo - although success will get in the way of that. The great programs do not need money or exposure and want to keep what they have so risking a loss in Provo does not rank high on their scheduling priorities. They may stop playing us altogether if we start winning those type of games with any consistency.



Utah and TCU are about to experience what a few more losses each year will do to brand recognition. BSU has started to take schedule risk. Too much of it and it will be some other MWC or Conf USA darling going undefeated. Louisville, UW, and even Notre Dame are programs that really hurt their brand due to over scheduling.



Just win baby



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I totally agree.

Good points. BYU's move to independence will be successful if BYU wins, wins often, wins big and has big wins.

IF we base the comparison on Indy vs. MWC, it is already a raging success. Far greater exposure, more money, more coverage and respect. However, as far and wins and losses go, that story will still be told, and can not know what Indy means for BYU until games are actually played over several seasons.

And if you look at going Indy over going to the WAC like originally planned, it's an even greater success. The WAC went from thinking they had added BYU to adding Texas-Arlington, Seattle, Denver, Texas-San Antonio and Texas St.