The Downside of Independence

[Cougarfan87]

I was just thinking about something that Gary Crowton told us about the end of the 2001 football season when he came as a guest speaker to our Coaching Football class in Winter of 2002 semester. He said they had traveled more miles than any other team, and when it came to those last two games, the players were just exhausted. He didn't pin it on Staley's injury, though I'm sure that hurt.

I'm starting to wonder if the stat I keep hearing ESPN announcers say every week, "BYU has traveled the most miles of any team this year..." is actually going to be a detriment year in and year out. We have seen the overall health of the team decline. How long does it take before exhaustion sets in?

Conversely, if you look at teams in the SEC, PAC 12, Big 10, etc. they do not have to travel very far at all. As such, their team health is better as their bodies are much fresher for the games. Of course the upside to all of BYU's travel is that I get to see BYU in person almost every year when they come close to the south.

[hawkwing]

I do believe the travel is both a blessing and a curse.

Blessing: spread the BYU/Mormon message further, interact with more fans, fans who bring their non-member football fan friends too. Recruiting is also benefited by getting into the home locations of recruits that we would otherwise rarely be in their region.

Curse: Traveling is hard. Just the travel itself can be exhausting, the changes in timezone and sleeping habits. Weather conditions are far outside of normal. School work suffers. Tough challenges to deal with.

[Cougarbib]

Other than Bowl Games and playoffs, football should be a regional sport with very few exceptions. There are several things going on in addition to this that tire a team out and should be pondered.

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[Gunk]

IMO, independence really isn't working out for us and with the way we keep shooting ourselves in the foot the Big 12 (with only 10 teams) isn't going to be calling us anytime soon. The negatives are out weighing the positives.

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[hawkwing]

IMO, independence really isn't working out for us and with the way we keep shooting ourselves in the foot the Big 12 (with only 10 teams) isn't going to be calling us anytime soon. The negatives are out weighing the positives.

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You think we'd be better off in the MWC?

[nickdutson]

IMO, independence really isn't working out for us and with the way we keep shooting ourselves in the foot the Big 12 (with only 10 teams) isn't going to be calling us anytime soon. The negatives are out weighing the positives.

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You think we'd be better off in the MWC?

Nope. 0-3

[ABYUFAN]

IMO, independence really isn't working out for us and with the way we keep shooting ourselves in the foot the Big 12 (with only 10 teams) isn't going to be calling us anytime soon. The negatives are out weighing the positives.

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You think we'd be better off in the MWC?

Nope. 0-3

And we'd have less money, and be on TV less, and not be able to play replays of our great victories over the past few years (although there are not as many of those as we'd like)

[YNot]

You think we'd be better off in the MWC?

I would actually be excited if TH announced this week that BYU was joining the American as part of a West division expansion - with Boise St., Air Force, UNLV, SDSU, and Colorado St.

If BYU re-joined the MWC, you would need some sort of eastward expansion to get any excitement.

[Gunk]

IMO, independence really isn't working out for us and with the way we keep shooting ourselves in the foot the Big 12 (with only 10 teams) isn't going to be calling us anytime soon. The negatives are out weighing the positives.

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You think we'd be better off in the MWC?

What are the primary objectives of BYU football? Exposure and revenue.

Winning gets us exposure. Winning gets us revenue. So while everyone talks about exposure and revenue, the real priority is winning. Winning puts fans in the stadium, sales merchandise, gets you on TV, gets you into big time bowls and gets people talking about you.

BYU isn't winning. No championships to go after. One loss or 6 and it's off to the Whatever Bowl, lost in irrelevancy.

Would rejoining the MWC put us in the best position to win. Probably. Not sure we could hang in the Big 12.

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[Cougarbib]

Reality check. We were 3rd best in the MWC before Boise State joined. Would have become 4th best. Utah, TCU, and BYU left, creating a vacuum. Now Nevada, USU, and occasionally others like SDSU have risen up.

Our performance has nothing to do with conference VA independence. It has more to do with SOS and the ups and downs of experience and talent from year to year.

We recruit around the median of D1 and usually perform better than that. Unfortunately, this year, injuries and an inexperienced DC have us playing at or below 60th do far, and worse lately.

When we start consistently recruiting better, BYU will rise up.

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