[BigdaddyQH]

BYU will announce today that they are going to go Independent in College Fooball, and join the WCC, not the WAC, for other sports. This is just fine, if you are looking to end your football program. If not, this is as stupid as it gets. First, their is the Bowl problem. BYU will get the same deal as Army and Navy get as far as BCS Bowls are concerned. They will NOT get the sae dealas Notre Dame has. Next, with every non-BCS Bowltied in, where will they play if they do not go to a BCS Bowl, which will happen on a yearly basis? THe MWC was a lock to get an automatic BCS bid with BYU in it. Now that is gone, and so are BYU's chances of going to any decent bowl.

Next, the Rambling Mormons have a scheduling problem. Just who is going to play them? They cannot make a deal with the WCC like they had with the WAC. The WCC, consisting of such schools as Gonzaga, St. Marys, and other schools, mostly in California, do not have FBS Football teams. The MWC teams will snub BYU intentionally now. Other than Notre Dame, Army, and Navy, every other FBS School is in a conference, meaning thiat it will be very difficult for BYU to schedule games after Spetember, when the vast majority of games are conference games. With the Big 10+2 and Big 12-2 both going to a 9 game conference schedule, their task has jus become that more difficult.

The biggest joke in all of this was that BYU and the Church of the what ever they are did this so that the BYU network (whatever that is) can make more money. The fact that they are going to lose money hand over fist because they are not in a conference and ABC/ESPN, FOX, and other networks will not give them the time of day. The Church thinks that by televising their games on ther own network, they can spread the word about BYU nationally. They have about as much of a chance doing that as one of their door to door preachers has of spreading the word to me. Talk about greed. This move will go down as one of the worst college moves in history.

[mtneer1212]

Genius move. They are the moneymakers in the Mountain West now that Utah is gone, and they do not want to split it 12 ways. Even if the revenue gets cut in half, they will get to keep it all.

As for scheduling, they will still play Utah, ND, Army, Navy......I'm sure they will find others.

As for bowls, they weren't a BCS team anyway, and they will have to find an alternative to the lucrative Mountain West lineup..... they were sick of going to the Las Vegas bowl every year.

[iwantcougars]

it's a fool move, they lose more than the mwc, they think they're notre dame with a huge fan base all over the world, said good by to their chances for a bcs bowl.

[JMUplayer]

Unless Ty Detmer comes back or has 10 kids... BYU is just second tier....

[MartinBlank]

This move is as dumb as it gets.

Fine. They want 10 million from the Mormon TV Network-----great----just who is watching this network?

This move is going to implode their program. They had a much better chance hanging in the Moutain West with recently added Boise State-----of making it to a BCS Bowl game---than they do with this move.

What BCS programs are going to schedule them in October and November when conference play is in full swing?

This was a bad/bad move.

[The DiB]

BYU will announce today that they are going to go Independent in College Fooball, and join the WCC, not the WAC, for other sports. This is just fine, if you are looking to end your football program. If not, this is as stupid as it gets. First, their is the Bowl problem. BYU will get the same deal as Army and Navy get as far as BCS Bowls are concerned. They will NOT get the sae dealas Notre Dame has. Next, with every non-BCS Bowltied in, where will they play if they do not go to a BCS Bowl, which will happen on a yearly basis? THe MWC was a lock to get an automatic BCS bid with BYU in it. Now that is gone, and so are BYU's chances of going to any decent bowl.

If anything, this move proves the opposite is true.

Why the hell would they make this move if they had the slightest indication that the MWC was going to get an auto bid? BYU's choice to leave the MWC shows that they knew the MWC wasn't going to get an auto bid with the departure of Utah. With or without BYU, the MWC isn't going to get an auto bid.

[MartinBlank]

If anything, this move proves the opposite is true.

Why the hell would they make this move if they had the slightest indication that the MWC was going to get an auto bid? BYU's choice to leave the MWC shows that they knew the MWC wasn't going to get an auto bid with the departure of Utah. With or without BYU, the MWC isn't going to get an auto bid.

What leverage do they have now though?

Seriously. Okay, so they believed the MWC wasn't going to get a bid----what bid/bowl connections do you suppose they are going to be able to negotiate now?

What bowl bids are they going to be able to negotiate with?

BYU is not Notre Dame. BYU's interest resides in mormon country---Utah. I just don't understand their thought process here.

[gafl]

With the changes in several conferences this year, BYU football probably fared the worst. Can't believe this was their first choice. Wonder if they thought they had a shot at a major conference, PAC-10?, And when the music stopped all the chairs were taken. Only one team has the national audience to go it alone, ND. Like posters above noted, scheduling is going to be tough, and most bowls are tied into conferences.

[crackerjack]

There are 12 million Mormons so I do think they have a fan base. But as a fan and grad I hope they prayed about this because at face value it looks like a bonehead move. I hope no one, Utah included, schedules them.

[The DiB]

What leverage do they have now though?

Seriously. Okay, so they believed the MWC wasn't going to get a bid----what bid/bowl connections do you suppose they are going to be able to negotiate now?

What bowl bids are they going to be able to negotiate with?

BYU is not Notre Dame. BYU's interest resides in mormon country---Utah. I just don't understand their thought process here.

I completely agree that this was a questionable decision on BYU's part.

Just found this move to be interesting because it said a lot about where we are in the BCS era. If a conference with the likes of BYU, TCU, Boise, etc can not get an auto bid, will we ever see any mid major conference move up and receive an auto bid? If I was a mid major, especially Boise or any other team in the MWC, I'd find this a little discouraging.

[Sean81]

This move is 100% a reaction to Utahs move to the Pac-10. They had to make the move to stay competitive in that state.