BYU to go Independent ala Notre Dame

[mdonnelly]

BYU defects; MWC tries to regroup - SignOnSanDiego.com

"Brigham Young University will leave the Mountain West Conference in 2011 to turn independent in football and join the West Coast Conference in others sports, BYU and the WCC announced Tuesday.

The departure of BYU is considered a harmful blow to the MWC, just two months after another prized member, the University of Utah, announced plans to leave the MWC for the Pac-10. Without those two programs, the MWC will have 10 committed future members, including San Diego State and newcomers Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada.

To boost its future options, the MWC plans to continue to explore partnerships with Conference USA and take talks with that league “to the next level," according to a memo obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune. ..."

 

[Derwin0]

"ala Notre Dame"???

I don't think so. Notre Dame has a pretty strong national following. While BYU has a national following of sorts, it's pretty much limited to Mormons, as opposed to the Irish who probably have more non-catholic fans than catholic, ie. a truly national following.

Me thinks that BYU is going to regret this and become even more irrelevant on the Bowl and National stages.

 

[Greg Bimson]

BYU is looking for an invite to the Pac-10 or the Big 12.

 

[Ramy]

They need a conference in order to be in any championship talks at all.

 

[salsadancer7]

They need a conference in order to be in any championship talks at all.

unless they load up on big name programs on the schedule and THEN go undefeated every year....you are right. And IF they did THAT, loading up your schedule is suicidal.

 

[salsadancer7]

BYU is looking for an invite to the Pac-10 or the Big 12.

That is what it smells like to me...

 

[Jimbo]

I think this is a very BAD move for BYU.

What happens if one of those conferences say's Hey, we don't want you, you just walked out on another conference.

 

[Mr Tony]

Sounds like they now have a contract with ESPN

BYU and ESPN have reached an eight-year deal for the network or one of its affiliates to broadcast the Cougars' home games, which at the moment are a lot of open dates.

 

[JTBenson]

I think this is a very BAD move for BYU.

What happens if one of those conferences say's Hey, we don't want you, you just walked out on another conference.

The Pac 10 will NOT take BYU because Stanford and Cal will block it. However, the Big 12 would, but ONLY if Notre Dame would come along, so it is a LONG SHOT. The Big 12 only will expand into areas where they can expand their footprint. Notre Dame and BYU are the two schools that would expand their footprint more than any other teams.

I think Notre Dame is a long ways from joining any conference however. And if they do, joining the Big 12 is not their first choice. However, the Big 12 does have two advantages over other conferences - Texas and freedom to have own network.

 

[Will94]

BYU is looking for an invite to the Pac-10 or the Big 12.

The rumor around here is that Texas is looking to go independent leaving A&M and OU to go to the SEC. Dan Bebe promised Texas, A&M, and OU $20 million each annually to keep them in the Big 12. That money doesn't exist, and I don't think that the Big 12 will for much longer.

Texas “Independence.” Aggies To SEC. And Everyone Else Is On Their Own. « SportsRadio 610

 

[JTBenson]

The rumor around here is that Texas is looking to go independent leaving A&M and OU to go to the SEC. Dan Bebe promised Texas, A&M, and OU $20 million each annually to keep them in the Big 12. That money doesn't exist, and I don't think that the Big 12 will for much longer.

Texas “Independence.” Aggies To SEC. And Everyone Else Is On Their Own. « SportsRadio 610

All just speculation and rumor right now. I think Texas will wait to see how much money can be made from TV within the Big 12 before they make the ultimate decision. Also, will the BCS give them the ND exemption? Right now, ND has a seat on the BCS board because of history, but Texas is not guaranteed to have the same automatic bid that ND currently enjoys.

 

[meStevo]

The spin here on the news in Vegas is that they did it for the exposure the new TV contract provides (Mountain West has an awful contract with The MTN Network so nobody sees the games) meanwhile the rest of their sports get neglected and play weak/no-name schools.

 

[SamCdbs]

IMHO,

- The question that nobody has answered is that bowls in the modern era have a very detailed system below the BcS. X Bowl gets Conf Y #3 vs. Conf Z #5. UND has a special deal with the Leastleftovers. Esentually it gets to "steal" whatever spot it would have finished in if it does not make the BcS. This helps UND, and it helps (some might say preserves) the Leastleftover's bowl deals, since UND has more fans than any Leastleftover. But, who is going to make such a deal with BYU? BYU already has issues with bowls because of the social morals of its fan base. Short of a deal, a 11-1 BYU could end up in the "pool" of teams picking up spots unfillable by the mega-confs, in the Eagle Bank Bowl and crap like that.

- The smart move for the MWC is to get full at 12. Pick up Hawaii and then make a geographically logical deal with CUSA to pick up some teams, with CUSA picking up some teams out of the Sun Belt. Then morph the MTN network into a joint CUSA-MWC network and then demand a deal where the best team from those 24 get a BcS slot.

- Texas A&M sold its soul for non-existant money. The Greatest Conference in the History of the World is not going to ever offer them a slot again.

 

[Derwin0]

Sounds like they now have a contract with ESPN

The contract only has them doing a minimum of 3 of the home games. The rest will be on BYUtv. Not exactly a lot of exposure.

BYU has this mistaken idea that they are the Mormon version of Notre Dame, and they just aren't. Notre Dame has a huge non-catholic fan base that BYU can't hope to match.

 

[Derwin0]

The rumor around here is that Texas is looking to go independent leaving A&M and OU to go to the SEC. Dan Bebe promised Texas, A&M, and OU $20 million each annually to keep them in the Big 12. That money doesn't exist, and I don't think that the Big 12 will for much longer.

If any other team could thrive in independence, it's Texas. For years they were pretty much the SWC. And they have a huge base in Texas.

 

[Ramy]

IMHO,

- The question that nobody has answered is that bowls in the modern era have a very detailed system below the BcS. X Bowl gets Conf Y #3 vs. Conf Z #5. UND has a special deal with the Leastleftovers. Esentually it gets to "steal" whatever spot it would have finished in if it does not make the BcS. This helps UND, and it helps (some might say preserves) the Leastleftover's bowl deals, since UND has more fans than any Leastleftover. But, who is going to make such a deal with BYU? BYU already has issues with bowls because of the social morals of its fan base. Short of a deal, a 11-1 BYU could end up in the "pool" of teams picking up spots unfillable by the mega-confs, in the Eagle Bank Bowl and crap like that.

- The smart move for the MWC is to get full at 12. Pick up Hawaii and then make a geographically logical deal with CUSA to pick up some teams, with CUSA picking up some teams out of the Sun Belt. Then morph the MTN network into a joint CUSA-MWC network and then demand a deal where the best team from those 24 get a BcS slot.

- Texas A&M sold its soul for non-existant money. The Greatest Conference in the History of the World is not going to ever offer them a slot again.

Notre Dame gets it's bowl slot from the Big East.

 

[mdonnelly]

Notre Dame gets it's bowl slot from the Big East.

How so? The Big East champion gets a guaranteed BSC invite, but Notre Dame football isn't in the Big East. Potentially, ND and the Big East champ could play each other in a BCS bowl.

 

[Ramy]

How so? The Big East champion gets a guaranteed BSC invite, but Notre Dame football isn't in the Big East. Potentially, ND and the Big East champ could play each other in a BCS bowl.

That's just the way it is and has been for some time now.

 

[Derwin0]

Potentially, ND and the Big East champ could play each other in a BCS bowl.

Potentially the same could be said about any 2 teams within a conference (Ohio St. & Michigan came close several years ago).
As it is though, part of Notre Dame's agreement with the Big East is be included in the conference for all sports except football, play a limited amount of games against Big East teams, and be included in the Big East for non-BCS Bowl bids.

It benefits both by insuring that Notre Dame isn't locked of non-BCS bowls, and improves the Big East bowl prospects in getting agreements with the better non-BCS bowls.

 

[Jimbo]

Potentially the same could be said about any 2 teams within a conference (Ohio St. & Michigan came close several years ago).
As it is though, part of Notre Dame's agreement with the Big East is be included in the conference for all sports except football, play a limited amount of games against Big East teams, and be included in the Big East for non-BCS Bowl bids.

It benefits both by insuring that Notre Dame isn't locked of non-BCS bowls, and improves the Big East bowl prospects in getting agreements with the better non-BCS bowls.

And they say Texas got all the perks in the Big 12, uh Big 10 Uh what ever they are calling it now.

ND has such a sweetheart deal that I can't imagine what they may have had to mortgage to get it.