PROVO — Numbers often are manipulated to prove a particular point, depending on the argument, but sometimes there can be only one interpretation.

A crowd of more than 18,000 spent a chilly Saturday afternoon at LaVell Edwards Stadium to watch the BYU football team play the spring scrimmage. Any way you spin it, the attendance figure proves the Cougars have generated a level of excitement not found in years.

For a program that had grown stale the last several years, the infusion of new blood is a welcomed addition. Obviously, people have responded to the new coaching staff, led by head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer.

“You can just feel the excitement in the area,” said sophomore quarterback Tanner Mangum.

For all the great work previous coach Bronco Mendenhall did in rebuilding the program, he was not particularly warm and fuzzy with BYU fans. His interactions were often stiff, made worse by fans interrupting him during public functions.

Sitake is the exact opposite, a fun-loving man capable of putting any curmudgeon at ease. There’s a reason virtually all media members believe they are close friends with Sitake.

Detmer is also a gem in his own right. The former Heisman Trophy winner is just as much at ease dealing with NFL legends as he is with the average fan. Every request for a picture or autograph is granted, complete with a smile.

“We have great fans,” Sitake said, “and we’re the type of program where we want our fans to feel ownership on this team.”

So what’s it all mean?

With the toughest schedule in program history awaiting next season, victories may be hard to come by. But the college football world will take notice if Detmer can translate the same magic he displayed as a BYU quarterback and Sitake can create the same type of aggressive defenses he coordinated for several years at Utah.

If a great season does happen, the timing would be excellent.

As an independent, BYU is on the outside looking in at the college football high rollers. The program desperately, as athletic director Tom Holmoe has noted, needs to find inclusion into a Power 5 conference or potentially face a slow slide into irrelevance.

Related:

BYU fans pack stadium for Sitake's first spring game

There was a long line outside each entrance into LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday afternoon — nearly 40 minutes before gates opened an hour before kickoff.

Here’s where the tremendous fan support can play an important factor. The numbers don’t lie.

At some point, whether it involves the Big 12 or another conference, the game will see more expansion. And when a conference goes looking for additional members, it will be hard to ignore all that BYU offers.

For starters, as the spring game proved, more people care about BYU football compared to most other expansion candidates. According to figures provided in a CBS Sports story, BYU was ranked No. 30 in attendance last season, with an average crowd of 58,532.

BYU ranked ahead of plenty of Power 5 teams in attendance, including nine from the Pac-12. UCLA, USC and Washington were the only Pac-12 teams to average a better home crowd than BYU.

BYU also was a part of a select group of programs that actually enjoyed an increase in attendance over the 2014 season. Attendance was up 2 percent.

By comparison sake, the Big 12 crowds averaged 56,831 last season, which comprises a 1 percent decline over 2014. For the third consecutive season, the Big 12 had its lowest average since 2005.

The Pac-12 saw average attendance dip by 1 percent to 51,795. The number is down 11 percent since a conference high in 2007.

Eventually, the power brokers will seriously contemplate including BYU. And if the on-the-field performance can match the newfound enthusiasm, the Cougars will finally get their wish of landing a seat at the big-boy table.

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