BYU legend wants football back in a conference

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PROVO — Never reticent about expressing his opinion, Jason Buck is adamant in believing BYU football should leave behind its status as an independent and join a conference.

The former BYU football legend has never embraced the decision to become an independent and points to the last six years as proof that he was right. He argues that BYU is reduced to playing out a meaningless final month each season and then ending with an irrelevant bowl game.

“We’ve got to get a home,” said Buck, who won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman during his senior year at BYU in 1986.

Buck wants BYU to adopt the Boise State model that has seen the football program play two or three big non-conference games and then dominate the conference schedule. Since 2005, Boise State has made three appearances in the Fiesta Bowl and won each game. In 2014, Boise State got to the Fiesta Bowl after two losses and beat Arizona.

During the same time frame, BYU has played in the Las Vegas Bowl six times. The Cougars will play this season in the Poinsettia Bowl for the second time in four years.

“We’re just kind of wandering out there in the wilderness in nowhere land,” Buck said.

Meanwhile, Boise State has surpassed BYU in terms of national acclaim. This season, during which they went 10-2 and beat BYU, Boise State played six games on ESPN or ESPN2 and four on CBS Sports Network.

From 2008-11, Boise State went 50-3 to become the first FBS team to win that many games over a four-year span. The program has won 12 conference championships since leaving the lower-division Big Sky in 1997.

Having played high school and junior college football in Idaho, Buck makes a good point. Boise State has become what BYU was for much of three decades.

To recapture its share of the national spotlight and push for inclusion into a Power 5 conference, Buck said to junk the independent schedule and go back to the model BYU used to gain all of its glory in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

The only options are a return to the Mountain West Conference or join the American Athletic Conference. In joining the Mountain West in 2011, Boise State cut its own television deal.

“Get the best deal you can and then go dominate,” Buck said. “Look at it like a five-year business plan. If we get a New Year’s Day bowl, I think you’d see things shake up the national scene.”

Buck also advocates expanding LaVell Edwards Stadium to a capacity around 80,000, which is an increase of about 15,000. He reasons that fans would respond when BYU is again playing for conference championships late in the season.

As it stands, BYU has been playing home games against mostly inferior competition in each November. Also worth noting is BYU’s November games often start past 8 p.m., which is unlike the start times during Buck’s era.

Buck’s rationale is Power 5 conferences and the national media would not be able to ignore BYU if the program is packing in crowds of 80,000 and playing for conference championships. He wants to force the Big 12 and other conferences to take notice.

“Why do we let these guys control the ball and run out the clock? Let’s control our destiny and be aggressive and come out and have a very aggressive business plan,” he said.

“It’s not about ticket revenue. It’s about the statement it makes. It’s about the power and influence.”

Stressing his opinion is born out of love and loyalty for his alma mater, Buck believes the majority of the players from his era support his stance. He understands BYU had to do something back in 2010 after Utah and TCU left for the Mountain West for the Pac-12 and Big 12, respectively.

But six years later, he said, it’s time for another change.

“You can see where independence goes and how you lose the relevance as the season goes on,” Buck said. “It’s fun to play a big-name team, but does Michigan State even care who we are? We’re not a conference game. There’s not that rivalry, that intensity where you just have to have that game.”