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Reporting from suburban Chicago, where the BYU Basketball team preps for the final weekend of play in the Chicago Invitational Challenge...
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It has been interesting to look back over the last number of months and see just how many people—beat writers, columnists, anyone with a Twitter feed—were confident they had the inside scoop on BYU's football future relative to conference realignment. We became accustomed to the phrases "sources say," "reports are," "people with knowledge of," "within a day or two," etc., etc., while fans waited and hoped for BYU to confirm any of these things with an announcement that would actually justify all of the breathless reporting and speculation. The confirmation never came, except to acknowledge that the school was indeed having conversations with the Big 12, and later, the Big East.
Today, BYU Football remains independent, even while at least one conference continues to re-assess the program's value to its realignment and/or survival hopes. At the same time, the school is considering its place as a piece in the college athletics puzzle. I think BYU feels comfortable in its position—certainly more comfortable than the Big East and its current and future football- playing members appear to be at the moment.
My belief ever since BYU opted for football independence over a continued existence in the Mountain West Conference is that the institution and its leaders would need an extremely compelling alternative to persuade them to alter their chosen course and long-term agreements with ESPN and scheduling partners like Notre Dame, not to mention the proprietary benefit of BYUtv. What BYU obtained by virtue of independence was security, and as ensuing events would clearly demonstrate, even legacy leagues with their mega- million-dollar TV contracts couldn't guarantee security for their members, in either the short or long term.
I am confident that as ardently as BYU was pursued by the Big 12 and Big East, the school's decision-makers were as adamant that if the school was going to reverse course, it had better be for a number of very good reasons—reasons good enough to compensate for the loss or substantial alteration of arrangements made with an eye to the distant future.
BYU observed the inter-school sniping, occasional threats and fractious power structure in the Big 12. BYU also observed the diminishing of the Big East's football profile at the same time BCS auto-qualification status—for the Big East or any league—has become a question mark. While a Big 12 invitation was never formally extended, as one from the Big East certainly was, I am sure BYU's leaders consistently returned to the same fundamental question: can we give up what we have for what we think we're going to get? In both instances, the answer appears to have been "no," at least to this point, in large part because of a TV arrangement that one Big East source has been quoted as calling a "nice little arrangement."
That arrangement essentially gives BYU everything it could have ever wanted from an exposure perspective, and if you are BYU, with its particular mission and set of objectives, exposure is everything. Not having to share revenue and worry about the next membership crisis in your conference may come a close second, but the ability to be seen by more people than ever before, every week, guaranteed by both the Worldwide Leader in Sports and BYU's own network, has proven to be the institution's trump card.
The LDS Church and BYU committed upwards of 100-million dollars to the construction of the hallmark BYU Broadcasting building. Not merely to justify that expense and the continued expense of operating that worldwide broadcasting arm, BYUtv is out to attract an increasingly sizable audience— for all if its programming. BYU Sports will be the entry portal to BYUtv's equally important non-sports programming, for many if not the majority of those audience members. If the Big 12 or the Big East aren't willing to facilitate BYUtv and its BYU Sports broadcast/rebroadcast plans, then those leagues or any league may need to offer something more or different than they have proposed.
Plain and simple: now that BYU has experienced the liberty and security of media autonomy, getting the school to opt for anything else will take a great deal more than simply dangling BCS AQ access as the end reward. In light of the latest speculation about the long-term viability of auto- qualifier status, BYU looks prudent and perhaps even prescient in its reluctance. For BYU, BCS access is desired, but currently fluid; national/international TV exposure is coveted, and currently guaranteed.
Sources in multiple leagues have essentially labeled BYU as "difficult to work with," in one form or another. Had BYU been asked to go directly from the Mountain West Conference, to the Pac-12, or Big 12 or Big East, the school would have been a lot "easier" to work with, without a doubt. The fact is, in 2010's summer or realignment, no one asked BYU to join them. BYU then went out and worked a deal for itself—a deal proving that not only did the institution have sustainable national media value, but the infrastructure and technical ability to thrive under the terms of its new arrangement. Now, in 2011, with at least two defection-racked conferences having recognized BYU's value, those leagues have approached the school about enhancing the value of their own operations. All BYU has done is assess its current position and judge it to be one of strength, and again, security.
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Now to the practical, fan-on-the-couch, Saturday-in-the- stadium perspective, which goes something like this: "I'm glad BYU is friends with ESPN, and I'm happy that I get to watch the games on channels I get in my home. I think it's cool that I can watch the games anytime on BYUtv, no matter where I am. But…as soon as the Cougars lose a game, their season is over. All we have are meaningless WAC games and late-nights in late November in front of 45 to 50-thousand fans. Yes, ESPN carries our games, but they don't matter, because we're not in a conference and we're not playing for anything. BYU Football is almost irrelevant right now, and I don't like it."
My response: unless BYU joins a BCS AQ conference, and unless/until BCS access rules change, one loss will doom the Cougars' national title hopes and potentially their aspirations for anything other than one of the done-deal bowls for which BYU is already destined. But, that was already the case, as soon as BYU went independent. Unless you are Notre Dame, your BCS access essentially hinges on going undefeated.
Independence places huge pressure on the first month of the season, the most likely time to have multiple marquee foes consistently available on a week-to-week basis. Had BYU performed better in September, November would have mattered a lot more. Bronco Mendenhall has recently and repeatedly said that he is excited about future BYU schedules, with the implication being that we are not going to see a steady diet of WAC schools to end future regular seasons.
Yes, it would be nice if BYU were not playing late November games at 7:30 and 8:30pm, but ESPN makes those rules, and ESPN is paying the bills. BYU sacrificed some crowd numbers for Nielsen ratings this season, and while it was a trade-off the school was willing to make, it was an exchange BYU foresaw when the short-term WAC schedule arrangement was made. At the same time, I am sure that a 9-0 BYU team would have sold out LaVell Edwards Stadium for Idaho on November 12th.
In the end, BYU Football will be as relevant as its play allows the team to be. If playing for a conference championship were the most important thing to BYU's leaders, they would be doing whatever it takes to be in a league. If BCS AQ status were the most important thing to BYU's leaders, they would have compromised their demands until that status was assured.
What the last few months have shown very clearly, to BYU's fans and critics, is that BYU's decision-making process is being governed by factors judged to mean more than either a conference crown or a BCS bowl bid. For that stance, BYU will be respected by some, ridiculed by others, yet hopefully understood by a great many supporters whose understanding should be anticipated, if not taken for granted.
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Switching gears to hoops, I am very excited to watch Dave Rose's Cougar hoopsters take on Nevada tomorrow night at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill. The Cougars will remain disappointed over failing to come away with a season-opening win at the Spectrum, especially since Utah State has bumped along to a 2-2 record with a team that appears to be headed for a dip season under Stew Morrill. That said, BYU has bounced back with three straight wins, and while the caliber of opposition has been subpar, the team has shown fundamental improvement in each and every game.
In losing that opener, Dave Rose saw that his plan to turn Brock Zylstra into a point guard was going to be even shorter-term than he expected, as he looked for ways to fill the gaps before Matt Carlino becomes eligible in mid- December. Rose gave it in one more game, but no more. In watching his team struggle to defeat Division 2 foe BYU- Hawaii, Rose knew that to maximize Zylstra's potential and that of his team, a change needed to be made.
Concurrently, Stephen Rogers was not performing as expected in his role as a starting shooting guard, going scoreless in two of the four halves he had played to that point in the season. As a team through two games, BYU had 32 assists, 42 turnovers, and was shooting 26% from the three-point line.
In his team's third game, Rose moved Zylstra to Rogers' starting spot, introduced non-scholarship PG Craig Cusick into Zylstra's spot, moved Anson Winder ahead of Nick Martineau as the second point, and BYU has since: turned in a pair of 90-plus point performances, gotten consecutive career scoring highs from Rogers, 12 assists and two turnovers from Cusick/Winder, 43 assists to 23 turnovers overall, and has set a school record for three- point field goals made in consecutive games (27-for-48 from the arc in the last two wins). That's called pushing the right buttons as a head coach.
The one guy Rose never has to worry about is Noah Hartsock, the only BYU player with double-figure scoring in all four games so far. Among BYU regulars, Hartsock leads the team in scoring, field goal percentage, blocked shots and steals, while standing third in rebounds and assists. He is shooting 60% from the field, 40% from the arc and 75% from the free throw line. A senior captain, Hartsock is playing at an all-league level. It's early, but his play is a great sign and hopefully something BYU can ride to success here in suburban Chicago.
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