(Red) It's official... BYU is a loner...

Well today BYU made the 'leap of faith' as it has been called to go independent in football and join the WCC in other sports (minus a few others which sounds like they got screwed). My immediate reaction to the move was that in the short term I think it works pretty well, exposure and scheduling anyways. I would say that it is step up over the MWC for exposure, but how hard is that? All home games on ESPN is very good, but now they are at the will of ESPN. When ESPN says play a game they have to play. I'd be a little concerned about when the games may be played. Scheduling they do have Notre Dame on the docket as well as Texas. But they still have the WAC for about 6 games. That is a big step down over MWC competition. So they are going to be around 10 games already for the 2011 and 2012 seasons it looks like, but when the WAC tie in ends in the next few years things could get tricky. Now the thing I would be most worried about is that, say for example, BYU loses 2 out of their first 3 or 4 games. Normally those are reserved for non conference games and you could come back and win your conference. Now without a conference and losing those games you have no championship to look forward to, at that point BCS consideration is long gone. Motivation for a team can be shot. And the problem with independent scheduling I don't know if it will be easy to find a middle ground in strength of the schedule. You need to try and find a medium between what Navy does and what Notre Dame does. Because you could play yourself out of a season pretty quickly with a tough schedule that you made. At the same time you don't want to schedule a bunch of cream puffs and screw yourself out of a good ranking. The problem I could see is that you may not have to much of a say in which way that works itself out. Because you are playing to the availability of other teams and when they can play. Depending on how the cards fall you could be hating life. Overall I think it was an ok move. The MWC due to it's exposure didn't give BYU to much of a choice, but competitively I think staying in the MWC was a better solution. But I understand the move. After all I'm in the Pac 12 so life is all good at the U, uncertain days lie ahead for the Y.

(Blue)Strange things afoot...

Well it's happened: just like Utah a few weeks ago, BYU has 'cut the cord' with the beloved (or behated depending on your outlook) Mountain West Athletic Conference. After some deep soul searching and meditation as to my feelings on this move, I have arrived at the following conclusion:


Onward and upwards.


The MWC was good and fun, but the best things had already been changed when Utah bolted and we started taking on WAC ilk. Boise and the rest would have changed things too much for it really to be the same, so sports were going to be different regardless. Just a note about the move, it was necessitated by $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
... and exposure.

The way things sit now, BYU has to scramble around to get people to play them, but Notre Dame, Hawaii, and others have made this less worrisome. Granted, there will be some weaker opponents, namely, the WAC tie in's. But hey, we have some Oklahoma, Florida State etc games to come and I am not too stressed. Things will work themselves out. Seems like ESPN is supportive and that's always a plus. I'm glad that I can flip the Mountain, CBSC, and Versus the proverbial bird in a few and that I'll be able to watch the games.

Two things I'll miss: playing for a conference championship and the Deseret First Duel. Now the latter should be effectively be impossible with BYU landing in the WCC with the other churchy schools with all of it's other sports except track swimming and softball. I feel for those guys and wonder where they'll end up. But like I said, onwards and upward.

As for the rest of the days blogging about stuff, it'll be more tricky now that the Utes have gone Pac 10 and we've 'independencitized' ourselves. BUT WE SHALL PREVAIL!!! Red and I will continue to bring you the finest hearsay and opinion to be had on the subject. And on that thread, to the games:

Utah VS Pitt: ... See Red's post :)
Seriously though- Pitt has historically been tough and I think that they will give the Utes a good indication of where their team sits. My prediction is a close game, with Utah coming out on top, under 24 points for the winner.

BYU VS Washington: Hmmm.. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I love good ol' S. Sarkisian as much as anybody, but I really hope for repeat of last years opener. The QB against us is as good as they come, but that hasn't ALWAYS killed us (just frequently). I have been checking the roster for the fresh blood on the squad and there is some hope there. The good thing about this week is that everyone is healthy. I predict a victory for BYU by a narrow margin or a loss. If we do win, I think it will be less then 4 points or so and probably under 30, but I'm optimistic.
I hope that our QB 'competition' is resolved soon and that we can shake the silly notion of dual QB action. In my opinion, you need a foundation based on "the guy" so that you can really form your offense. That's not what Bronco wants right now and hey, hope it works. But I suspect that one or the other needs to come to the forefront and stay there. There are more things I could say, but the only way to really see is to hide and watch. That goes for Independence as well as the team this year.