Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Speaking as the athletic director at Brigham Young University, Tom Holmoe probably could use a vacation — or at least a nap — after pushing the Cougars over the line and into a long-awaited Power Five conference with this weekend's formal introduction into the Big 12 Conference.
But as a fan and alum of the football program, Holmoe was as excited as any of the thousands that streamed through campus Saturday afternoon to celebrate the event.
So when an unbuttoned and casual Holmoe met with select members of the media to discuss the Cougars' move to the Big 12 over the weekend, both versions of the 18-year athletic director were present over the course of the 20-minute conversation.
"I'm a BYU alum; I'm a football player," the former BYU defensive back and fourth-round NFL draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers said. "Many times, I wear the same hat as them: I'm an AD by day and a fan by night. This is something that I've wanted for a long, long time.
"I'm super excited for the fans," he added. "A couple of years ago, we played games with no fans … and they were competitive, we battled, they counted. But it wasn't the same. Those times really landed home for me how much we need those fans."
That celebration won't last long, though. After achieving the university's goal of a Power Five conference invite since well before only five power conferences existed — as far back as the 1980s, some have argued — Holmoe knows the work is just beginning.
Several of BYU's athletic programs should be competitive right away, including a nationally dominant cadre of women's programs in soccer, volleyball and track and field. But Holmoe admitted that some of the school's sports have "stalled" in recent years and will need work to get right.
"We have tried to strengthen ourselves through the time as an independent and in the West Coast Conference. And I think some of our teams have gotten stronger and are really prepared," Holmoe said. "Some of our teams have been a little bit stalled. We're working on reasons why this happened, and how we can get better."
Well before the first athletic contest with a Big 12 logo comes to campus when BYU women's soccer opens its season Aug. 5, Holmoe and the rest of the Cougars' administration — including newly installed university president Shane Reese — have plenty of goals and roadmaps to set up.
BYU's move toward the Big 12 started well before Saturday's formal induction, or that famed Friday in September when then-commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec extended a sought-after invitation to the league a day before the Cougars ended a decade-long losing skid to archrival Utah on the football field.
The Cougars have been branded about as a power conference-adjacent type of team for decades, at least since becoming the only program from outside the current set of Power Five conferences to win a modern-era national title in 1984.
At the time, BYU was often seen as a target for the former Pacific Coast Conference. But when the Pac-8 became the Pac-10, and later the Pac-12, the Cougars were always left in the dust by the left coast.
So they turned their attention east, towards the southwest, when the old Southwest Conference remnants were merging with members of the Big 8. In the 90s, BYU thought it had secured a move for itself — but former Texas governor Ann Richards reportedly lobbied for alma mater Baylor's admission instead, and the other religious school from Utah was left wanting.
Then again, in 2011, BYU was left on the outside looking in when the Pac-10 brought in Utah and Colorado, fundamentally altering the Cougars' strongest rivalry and setting a course of football independence (and admission to the West Coast Conference in most other sports) that brought them to 2023.
Former BYU athletic director Rondo Fehlberg called the latter snub by the Pac-12, "religious bigotry masquerading as academic snobbery," according to the Deseret News.
Now some 13 years later, BYU finds itself in a very different position, with a spot at the Big 12 table secured while the Pac-12 tries to reclaim a new identity (not to mention, a new media-rights deal) following the desertion of USC and UCLA to that Big Ten in 2024.
"During the years of independence, where there wasn't really a real pathway to being in a P5 conference, we still were moving towards that," Holmoe said. "That's always been the goal; that's always been the dream. We structurally and strategically have made a lot of changes that we wouldn't comment on or not be asked about, but all with the common goal."
Now that the invitation is secured, including access to a Big 12 media-rights extension with ESPN and FOX that will reportedly pay each school $31.7 million per year through 2031, Holmoe knows Saturday is only the beginning for BYU.
"For me, it's not so much about the money that you might get. I want our student-athletes to be able to play against the best competition in the country, year in and year out. There were certain teams that wouldn't play us; it wasn't so much that they feared us. It just wouldn't fit into their schedule. But when you play in a power conference, you'd better be careful what you wish for; it just might come true."
