BYU and their Sunday Game Situation

The big hurdle or perceived hurdle about BYU joining the Pac-10 or even the Big XII is that they do not play games on Sunday due to their religious faith, but they do travel on those days.  Time to compare Sunday games that the Pac-10 and the Big XII participates in against the BYU sports to see if this is as big a deal breaker for the Cougars to join either league.  The reason the Big XII is considered is because that is a possibility if Colorado leaves to join the Pac-10.

BYU participates in nine men's varsity sports: baseball, basketball, football, tennis, swimming, volleyball, cross country, golf, and track and field.  Football can be eliminated as neither leagues play games on Sunday as is volleyball where BYU would still be in the MPSF no matter what and they do not play on Sunday.  Swimming is not effected either since the championships for the NCAA, Pac-10, and Big XII end on Saturday.

Check out the chart after the jump for a full comparison of what sports participate on Sundays, and to see if it is really that big of a deal.

The perception that BYU could not move leagues because of Sunday does not hold too much water, except with baseball.  Tennis and golf can be managed since the Sunday matches are non-conference games for golf with a few conference games for tennis which can easily be played on Saturday. Hoops is rare for the Pac-10 since those Sunday games are for CBS and the Big XII has none.

So the only sport that has a significant problem is baseball, the Pac-10 would be a huge problem since they play nearly every Sunday in conference play, and that is to avoid less school time missed by playing Friday through Sunday series.  Making a switch to Thursday through Saturday would be pretty big and unless the Pac-10 really wanted BYU for football they could just point to baseball and so no. 

To have only BYU play non-Sunday series would be an advantage and disadvantage to all schools.  Now, in saying that unless the Pac-10 really wanted BYU for football money the switch would be made.  The Big XII has some baseball Sunday games, but they are not consistent enough to effect BYU from joining their league.  The only problem is that the finals are on a Sunday, but that is fairly easy to move around.

The myth that BYU would be a bad fit because they can not play on Sunday would cause only a very minor ruckus in the scheduling and really only in baseball and Pac-10 golf finals, but nothing that is not doable if either league wants BYU.