BYU Charted its Path to the Big 12 through Independence

[Esqueleto]

BYU's goal was always to join a P5 conference and felt the best way to get there was as an Independent. No school from the MWC has moved up. And, other than the 3 schools from the AAC, no other conference has had schools move up. BYU had a focus, commitment, history and means to achieving P5 status.

Florida State did the same thing as an Independent before achieving success and joining the AAC. It was their "Play anyone, any place, any time" approach that brought them national exposure.

I'm pretty sure TCU moved to the Big 12 from the MWC.

[CrazyCajun]

BYU's goal was always to join a P5 conference and felt the best way to get there was as an Independent. No school from the MWC has moved up. And, other than the 3 schools from the AAC, no other conference has had schools move up. BYU had a focus, commitment, history and means to achieving P5 status.

Florida State did the same thing as an Independent before achieving success and joining the AAC. It was their "Play anyone, any place, any time" approach that brought them national exposure.

It’s pretty much everyone’s goal to go P5 but they literally left their conference because the others schools did not want to arrange the entire conference schedule around not playing or traveling on sundays. I’m not making it up. It also had to do with not having the right to broadcast their games on BYUtv. Utah and TCU both moved up.

[ZoomZoom]

And they have their own media Network. Facts matter.

Bingo. Just like Liberty.

[CajunNation]

The key ingredients for Indy status are

1) Ability to have your own Bowl Tie in somewhere.
There could be an opening with the NOLA Bowl, or we could start our own Energy Bowl here. Doable.

2) A regional conference to place all of your other sports.
The SLC would love to have our non-football sports. The A-Sun would also be possible. For you Pearl Clutchers, there is nothing we have accomplished in the SBC that we couldn't have done in the SLC for non-FB sports.

3) A commitment to see it through from the administration and the donors.
This would be the deal breaker for us. Our Admin. would never do this in a million years.


4) Ability to fashion some sort of media deal.
Not as impossible as some here would have you believe. Remember, our non-FB sports will be part of the SLC media deal. FB is the question.

An Indy schedule for us would contain about 4 or 5 Major Conference schools. Very good chance that a couple of those would be on Linear TV. They usually are. Outside of that, I don't see why we couldn't do an individual deal with one of the platforms.

The revenues from all of the P5 games would render any revenue loss from a weak media deal mute.... Or, we allow some donors to step up and we start producing our own content.

[CrazyCajun]

The key ingredients for Indy status are

1) Ability to have your own Bowl Tie in somewhere.
There could be an opening with the NOLA Bowl, or we could start our own Energy Bowl here. Doable.

2) A regional conference to place all of your other sports.
The SLC would love to have our non-football sports. The A-Sun would also be possible. For you Pearl Clutchers, there is nothing we have accomplished in the SBC that we couldn't have done in the SLC for non-FB sports.

3) A commitment to see it through from the administration and the donors.
This would be the deal breaker for us. Our Admin. would never do this in a million years.


4) Ability to fashion some sort of media deal.
Not as impossible as some here would have you believe. Remember, our non-FB sports will be part of the SLC media deal. FB is the question.

An Indy schedule for us would contain about 4 or 5 Major Conference schools. Very good chance that a couple of those would be on Linear TV. They usually are. Outside of that, I don't see why we couldn't do an individual deal with one of the platforms.

The revenues from all of the P5 games would render any revenue loss from a weak media deal mute.... Or, we allow some donors to step up and we start producing our own content.

2) the SBC is the 5 best baseball league in the country, shortly the 4th best and the SLC is one bid

[MelRock]

The key ingredients for Indy status are

4) Ability to fashion some sort of media deal.
Not as impossible as some here would have you believe. Remember, our non-FB sports will be part of the SLC media deal. FB is the question.

The revenues from all of the P5 games would render any revenue loss from a weak media deal mute.... Or, we allow some donors to step up and we start producing our own content.

You want to kill our baseball program, no thanks. The SBC has made great strides with softball as well. Again, no thank you.

[JayWalker]

Yeah, play in the Southland where you're almost guaranteed a play in game in the NCAA tournament. And, as MelRock said, spring sports are a non starter when you talk about the Southland.

There are exactly two people who think being independent would work. And, both of them have contributed to this thread.

[RaginDave]

I've said this before, and I will say it again. Possibly years ago, this would have been a logical idea (possibly). But in today's world of college sports, it would not work, football could possibly happen, because you only schedule 12 games, but other sports would be almost impossible to schedule, which means you would have to join a conference for all sports outside of football, and while we don't love the SBC, the reality is that no conference that we would join would have nearly the same competition in those sports that the SBC does. Baseball and Softball, first and foremost. But the same could be said for basketball, we might hate being a 13 or 14 seed in the seasons that we make it to the tournament, but the SLC champion last year was a 16 seed, the year before they were also a 16 seed, the year before they were 14 seed, the year before covid a 15, the year before that a 14. But that was before the conference lost all of the Texas teams.

We would be in a much worse situation as an independent than we are right now, with very little chance of moving up.

The landscape of college athletics has changed, we are in a really good place right now, not perfect, but really good.

[CajunNation]

Yeah, play in the Southland where you're almost guaranteed a play in game in the NCAA tournament. And, as MelRock said, spring sports are a non starter when you talk about the Southland.

There are exactly two people who think being independent would work. And, both of them have contributed to this thread.

I DON'T think it would work here. As I said in my post, your leadership must be committed to this. Ours never would be.

Hasn't it been questionable lately on at large bids for UL baseball? I don't see much difference here. Basketball? Go from a 1-bid league to another. Softball? We have always been a conference of one on that. No difference. Weren't we about to play McNeese in a Super?

I think the biggest hit here would be to our pride.

[JayWalker]

I DON'T think it would work here. As I said in my post, your leadership must be committed to this. Ours never would be.

Hasn't it been questionable lately on at large bids for UL baseball? I don't see much difference here. Basketball? Go from a 1-bid league to another. Softball? We have always been a conference of one on that. No difference. Weren't we about to play McNeese in a Super?

I think the biggest hit here would be to our pride.

Dude, get a grip.

The Sun Belt has been a FOUR BID LEAGUE the last two years. And, will continue to be. I can remember the SLC getting two bids maybe twice in the last 20 years or so.

There's a big difference between being a 13 seed in the NCAA tournament and being a 16.

Please stop.

[CajunNation]

Dude, get a grip.

The Sun Belt has been a FOUR BID LEAGUE the last two years. And, will continue to be. I can remember the SLC getting two bids maybe twice in the last 20 years or so.

There's a big difference between being a 13 seed in the NCAA tournament and being a 16.

Please stop.

Well, remove us from the SBC 4 and add us to the SLC 2. Changes things. I'm guessing we would get just as many bids as we would win that tourney more often than not. I'll give you the fact that the SLC is garbage. I merely wanted to use the worst case scenario.

Odds are we would work some deal with CUSA. My dream scenario would be to get a Missouri Valley invite for our other sports. Travel would be more costly, but it would bolster our efforts to raise our profile to coincide with the Indy status. Like I said, commitment.

[R1Letterman]

Yeah, play in the Southland where you're almost guaranteed a play in game in the NCAA tournament. And, as MelRock said, spring sports are a non starter when you talk about the Southland.

There are exactly two people who think being independent would work. And, both of them have contributed to this thread.

But byu was not independent in all sports. How do they figure out which conferences allow non football schools to play and which don't. Sunbelt had a non football school before?
Also pac 12 allowed usc to be in without softball