BYU Charted its Path to the Big 12 through Independence

[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.

You are correct about the playI. Game but should it be that way? How about rotating the play in games, so it is known at beginning of year that this year is x,y and z's turn for play in game

[Turbine]

There was a time not so long ago when had Louisiana bolted in football there was ZERO chance the SBC would have asked UL to leave in other sports.

[Turbine]

Often (not always) whenever someone compares conferences with the slant of demeaning the other conference, they often fail to subtract Louisiana's contribution to the SBC and transfer the contribution to the other conference.

[CajunEXPRESS]

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.

With these giant conferences they are scheduling 9 games in conference another Pp5 game. That leaves them 2 games to get to 6 and 7 They prefer 8. This isn’t 1975 with dozens of independents. BYU goal was P5 or bust. They had major dollars backing them. So you’re spot on.

[CrazyCajun]

With these giant conferences they are scheduling 9 games in conference another Pp5 game. That leaves them 2 games to get to 6 and 7 They prefer 8. This isn’t 1975 with dozens of independents. BYU goal was P5 or bust. They had major dollars backing them. So you’re spot on.

And an entire religion behind them

[ZoomZoom]

And an entire religion behind them

And a world wide tv network. Was weird to be in Hawaii years back and BYU tv was on the cable.

[Cajunrunner]

All you people thinking going Independent to follow the BYU model to a P5 conference seem to be forgetting one very important thing:

MONEY

[R1Letterman]

There was a time not so long ago when had Louisiana bolted in football there was ZERO chance the SBC would have asked UL to leave in other sports.

Interesting....

Was it in writing then or is it now?

[R1Letterman]

Often (not always) whenever someone compares conferences with the slant of demeaning the other conference, they often fail to subtract Louisiana's contribution to the SBC and transfer the contribution to the other conference.

Same way they say the other team from other conference (esp p5) has "bigger budget" but don't account for the conference money the mothership gives them

[R1Letterman]

And a world wide tv network. Was weird to be in Hawaii years back and BYU tv was on the cable.

They can't play on Sundays but the network is on on Sundays? Hmmm.

[R1Letterman]

All you people thinking going Independent to follow the BYU model to a P5 conference seem to be forgetting one very important thing:

MONEY

And nobody from in their own state tried to block them

[Turbine]

All you people thinking going Independent to follow the BYU model to a P5 conference seem to be forgetting one very important thing:

MONEY

There is four times more money available for the anytime anywhere independant than there is for a Sunbelt school.

Imagine if BYU took the stance we are stuck in Utah with 2 million local followers and only 60,000 attend games.

Gotta start brandswathing at some point.