BYU football going independent

[Katya]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/58998/

BYU football is considering going independent . . . of what? (Clearly, I am not competent in the area of sports.)

[C is for]

of Conferences.

*waits for someone else to fill in the rest*

[Katya]

of Conferences.

*waits for someone else to fill in the rest*

And being independent of conferences means they have more flexibility with broadcast rights?

[NerdGirl]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing.

[Katya]

And doesn't your conference determine who you play throughout the season? (Not to mention bowl games?) Isn't it a problem if they have no conference? Will they have to wander around looking for (televised) pick-up games?

[Tao]

Notre Dame is the most similar conference-independent college, but have been enough of a powerhouse that they helped set the rules for bowl placement criteria, assuring themselves an automatic berth if they finish in the top eight. If BYU could secure a similar arrangement, they'd probably be more than happy. If not....

[Darth Fedora]

From what I understand, if BYU goes independent, we will probably still end up playing most of the MWC during the season (just like how Notre Dame is technically independent, but still plays most of the Big 10 each season), but we won't be obligated to play the sucky teams in our conference that weaken our schedule and don't bring in the big bucks. Instead, we can substitute those games for games with more competitive, well-known programs and put those games on real TV networks. The biggest boons, I think, are broadcasting dollas and not having to share our bowl winnings.
Word on the street is if we go independent for football, we might join the WAC for all other sports.

[Gimgimno]

+ tons of bux
+ basically set our own schedule
= better strength of schedule because we don't mess around with riff-raff-street-rats
= easier to sustain the rivalry with Utah because we can work around their schedule in the Pac-12
= more bux
+ more exposure for the Church
= more salvation
= more heavenly bux

[thebigcheese]

And doesn't your conference determine who you play throughout the season? (Not to mention bowl games?) Isn't it a problem if they have no conference? Will they have to wander around looking for (televised) pick-up games?

This is my understanding of the whole situation... BYU is thinking about going independent in football (not other sports), and they have to decide by Sept 1. This means leaving the Mountain West Conference and not belonging to any conference. It's a risky move, but it could have huge payoffs. First of all, football independence has several implications... Without a conference, you are not limited to a specific group of opponents. This is good if other teams actually want to play against you (scheduling is easy). But without a conference, you are not guaranteed any opponents. This is bad if other teams don't want to play against you (scheduling is a disaster). Why would other schools like/dislike playing against you? The two biggest reasons are ticket sales and strength of schedule.

Ticket Sales
If your team can't fill a stadium, you're not worth playing. Opponents appreciate big ticket sales when we're playing in their stadium, especially when it's a really big stadium (some have over 100,000 seats). If your team is fairly competitive and has a national fan base, you are always going to sell lots of tickets, regardless of where you're playing. However, if your team is less competitive and its fans are mostly locals, they do not "travel well" (as the bowl people say). You are less likely to sell tickets at away games. Some people criticize Boise State for this reason. Sure, they're good. But why would the big schools want to play them? They have lots of fans in Idaho, but not anywhere else. BYU, on the other hand, has some fans everywhere (due to its association with the LDS Church), but the fan base is mostly concentrated in the west. So, the question is, would the schools in the east be interested in playing BYU? Maybe, maybe not.

Strength of Schedule
This is one of the biggest reasons why the fans want BYU to leave the Mountain West. The Mountain West is full of mediocre teams, and we have to play all of them. We can't prove ourselves on a national level if we're stuck playing these mediocre teams every single year. As an independent, we are free to schedule whoever we want, including the powerhouse teams like Florida, Texas, and Alabama. Now, for the other side of the coin: do the other nationally-ranked teams feel like BYU is good enough to schedule a game? Depends who you ask. Some people feel like BYU is great because we are consistently ranked in the top 25 (and we beat Oklahoma!). Other people feel like BYU lacks credibility (and doesn't deserve the high ranking) because we tend to have these football disasters when our rankings go up (we almost lost to Utah State, for crying out loud!). It's all a matter of opinion. Maybe we can't get Florida to schedule a game with us...but can we get Virginia Tech? USC? Georgia Tech? Even though they're not #1, those schools still carry a lot of credibility. BYU would rather play a nationally-respected team like Georgia Tech than a lousy Mountain West team like Wyoming.

BCS Bowl Games
Like every other team in the universe, BYU would LOVE to play in a big BCS bowl...for the huge money and publicity. Similarly, BYU fans want the team to play in a BCS bowl for the respect (also known as bragging rights). Since the Mountain West isn't a BCS conference, we probably won't ever get invited to one of the big bowl games, even if our team is undefeated at the end of the season. If we go independent...well, this is where it gets weird. There aren't a lot of rules about independent schools, so we have to go by example. As said before, Notre Dame is an independent. Army and Navy are also independents. Since Notre Dame has a respected program and they were involved in BCS negotiations back in the day, they are automaticically invited to a BCS bowl if they finish ranked in the top 8 (or are ranked ahead of other conference champions). If BYU can negotiate a similar deal, that would be good. Otherwise, well...Army and Navy don't get those same privileges.

Television
One of the biggest reasons for football independence is the TV deals. This is important because TV brings in enormous amounts of money and lots of publicity. Currently, the Mountain West televises its games on the MTN. Nobody likes this network because it is only available locally (my dad can't watch BYU games because my parents live out of state), it is only available on cable (even if you live in Provo), and it doesn't bring in a lot of money for the conference. If BYU goes independent, they might book a deal with ESPN (or another big network) and make huge money. Normally, teams have to split their TV revenues with other teams in the conference. As an independent, BYU would keep all the revenue for itself.

Phew. That was probably WAY more in-depth than what Katya wanted. But did I miss anything?

[Katya]

Phew. That was probably WAY more in-depth than what Katya wanted.

Not at all. Thanks!

[thebigcheese]

Sorry, I just thought of one more thing to add...

Aside from the immediate consequences at BYU, this whole situation is infinitely complicated by what all the other conferences are doing. Since there's so much conference-hopping going on right now, the future of conferences in general is very uncertain. Because of this, BYU officials have some unanswered questions regarding the future of college football:

- Given the Pac-10's recent attempt at expansion, are we moving toward a world of football super-conferences? Will all the conferences want to merge in the coming years? If this happens, what then happens to independent schools? Would it be more beneficial to stay with the Mountain West?
- If we go independent, will this create some sort of domino effect with other schools? Will other schools want to follow suit? What effect would this have on the conferences?

[thebigcheese]

http://www.blocku.com/2010/8/19/1632774 ... conference

[Katya]

http://www.blocku.com/2010/8/19/1632774 ... conference

Ha! "Shut the heck up, Las Vegas!"