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PROVO -- Rumors about BYU football going independent were confirmed Wednesday.
A source with Utah State University, familiar with the situation, told the Deseret News the move will be announced in the next day or two.
The USU source told the Deseret News it will be finalized on Thursday "after the Quorum of the Twelve (Apostles) meets." [CLICK HERE to read the Deseret News article]
In a statement BYU said, "We are aware of the many media reports and questions circulating about BYU's conference alignment. As Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe explained recently, BYU has been reviewing, and will continue to explore, every option to advance its athletic program. At this point, BYU has no further comment."
KSL's Rod Zundel spoke with Holmoe last week on the possibility of making the big move.
Cougar Tracks:
Camp Cougar, Day 10
Greg Wrubell addresses reports about BYU's move to football independence/WAC affiliation."Independence is an option," Holmoe said. "We're in a position where we have good options and, like I've said all along, we need to look at every one of them. And when a door opens up, if it works great for BYU, positions us for a great jump into the future, we'll do it."
The voice of the Cougars Greg Wrubell explains what this move could mean for BYU.
"There's no more revenue sharing if you go independent," he said. "You get to set more of your own course relative to who you play, when and where."
Wrubell also said, "In a lot of ways independence could be a very good thing for BYU football. You get to set some of your own terms and I think BYU is yearning for that ability that they maybe haven't had for awhile."
Meanwhile, the reports had BYU's non-football sports leaving for the Western Athletic Conference. Late Wednesday, the Mountain West Conference announced California State University, Fresno and the University of Nevada, Reno have accepted invitations to join the conference, leaving the WAC.
That would leave the WAC with just six teams -- one of those being Utah State.
Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson spoke about the BYU rumor a short time ago, saying only, "I don't know what BYU's intentions were or are, and simply this was an effort to make the Mountain West a better conference."
Rumors of the move to an independent status made the front page of ESPN.com Wednesday morning. The website reported that the Cougars could follow the University of Utah out of the Mountain West Conference to become an independent in football and join the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports. ESPN.com cites sources saying this could happen after this season.
The Colorado State University football Twitter feed also posted a message just before midnight that apparently turned out to be posted by hackers. It said the Cougars are looking to leave the Mountain West and a press conference is scheduled for Thursday.
Last month, Holmoe said the school has considered independence. He talked up the potential of the school's new broadcast facility for distribution.
"The things that we can do with that, the opportunities and possibilities, nobody in the country -- repeat, nobody has that ability," he said at the time.
"It leads our discussion to, ‘What can we do in any realm to help build the mission of our school?' And those are the things we've been looking at for years," he added.
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Story compiled with contributions from Kathy Aiken, Greg Wrubell and Andrew Adams.
