Cougars give Big East a Big Thumbs Down

In the NCAA’s most poorly-kept secret, the Big East had discussions with BYU about a football-only membership, and BYU was not interested.  Some are actually disappointed with this development, and some even say that BYU cannot afford to turn down any conference that automatically qualifies for the BCS bowls.  They are wrong.  The Cougars were very intelligent to turn down the Big East, for numerous reasons.

 First, some background information into how things are usually done in major conferences is necessary.  Conference ABC is interested in Team XYZ.  Conference ABC contacts Team XYZ to see if they would be interested in membership.  If the answer is yes, they discuss logistics.  If it looks like a good fit for both sides, Team XYZ is invited to “apply for membership.”  Then, Conference ABC “deliberates” before finally inviting Team XYZ to join.

 This gives both conferences and teams a chance to “save face” by denying that any serious discussions or offers were ever made if either side decides it isn’t a good fit.  Obviously, with the Big East and BYU, it never got past the exploratory stage.  In the past, we would never know that this had ever happened.  In today’s climate, though, it is almost impossible to keep a secret this big, and it was leaked.

 There are a few big reasons that BYU was 100 percent correct in turning down the Big East:

 

1.  As football conferences go, the Big East is the Big Least.

 The Big East is a great basketball conference.  As a football conference, though, they are the worst of the six BCS conferences.  While this would appear to be great when looking at it superficially because it is the easiest conference to win, it isn’t all that great.  When Cincinnati, Texas, and Alabama went undefeated in 2009, it was the Big East team that got left out of the National Championship game.

 Big East football is a no-win situation.  The teams are good enough to spring an upset, but not good enough to inspire confidence among the voters or come up big in the computers.  Basically, BYU would help the Big East a lot more than the Big East would help BYU.

 

2.  The Notre Dame Factor

 As it stands now, BYU is poised to be in a two-team de facto “conference” with Notre Dame as its only competition for a BCS berth.  Notre Dame is probably going to be a very tough team with Brain Kelly at the helm.  He has apparently survived the Declan Sullivan tragedy with his job intact, and will be running his version of the spread with the kind of talent that Notre Dame can attract.

 However, there is no guarantee that Notre Dame will ever be “Notre Dame” again.  Notre Dame hasn’t been “Notre Dame” since the book “Under the Tarnished Dome” came out in 1993.  The media, though, still treat Notre Dame as if they were as good as they used to be, even when they aren’t much better than a MAC team.

 What this means for BYU is that if they prove themselves to be equal to or better than Notre Dame as an independent, they will start getting the nicer bowl bids.  And an undefeated BYU with a victory over a resurgent Notre Dame has a lot better chance to get into the BCS Championship Game than a Big East Champion.

 

3.  The Travel Nightmare

 The geography is ludicrous for a move such as this one.  A team that is a few hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean is not a good travel fit for a conference whose main constituency is within a few hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean.  For the other teams, it would be no problem, because they would travel to Provo once every other year at the most.

 But for the Cougars, it would mean four trips across the country every year.   First of all, this would be bad for the student-athletes, requiring an extra day out of school for those weeks.  Secondly, it would cost the school more money than they would make.  And this brings us to the next point.

 

4.  BYU would Lose Money

 The added travel would add expenses to the Cougars, but they would get less TV money from the Big East than they are getting now as an independent.  I won’t go into the math here, but you don’t have to be an accountant to see this:

 The Big East payout minus travel expenses is less than the independent payout minus smaller travel expenses.

 There is just no way to justify the loss of revenue or the ROI of a move to the Big East.

 

5.  No Traditional Rivalries

 BYU doesn’t have any traditional rivalries with any of the Big East teams.  They would be a curiosity at first, but it would probably take at least five years for any new rivalries to develop.  That is too long to wait.

 The bottom line here is that it is a no-win situation for the Cougars.  The only way it could possibly work is if the Big East became a mega-conference with a Western Division.  Even then, the Big East Western Division just doesn’t sound right.

 BYU, like Notre Dame, is one of the few schools who is much better off as an independent.  Notre Dame is often perceived as the national university for Catholics.  BYU really is the national university for LDS members.  This gives BYU a national fan base unlike any other.  The fanbase also “travels well” to bowl games.

 Until a conference that has can offer true quid pro quo to BYU makes an offer, the Cougars should continue as an independent.  It is rumored that many other schools are watching the BYU business model very closely.  If this is true, BYU just might be the first of many schools to reject the current BCS business model.

 Wouldn’t that be interesting…