BYU fans are not in the best of moods with their rival Utah moving on to greener pastures to the Pac-10 even though historically BYU has been the better program. Utah has been the better program for the past decades with two BCS wins, but BYU fans are waving their hands and pointing to their dominance in the 70's to late 90's under legendary coach LaVell Edwards which included a national title in 1984. BYU has not been a slouch under Bronco Mendenhall with multiple ten win seasons and top 25 rankings.
BYU fans are perplexed to why they were not chosen:
"I'm ready to jump off the ledge. This hurts. The thought of Utah going to the Pac-10 and us being stuck in the Mountain West makes me sick. I'm not kidding. I want to puke. The Utes have been good for seven seasons. We've been good, other than the Crowton years, for 40 seasons. We've beaten them three out of the last four years. We draw more fans than them. We have a bigger national audience. And they go to the Pac-10? Why? Because of [our] religious affiliation? It sucks."
It basically does come down to BYU being affiliated with a religious institution which is the complete opposite views as BYU, somewhat to do with BYU not being a research school, and the Sunday play.
Big XII savior and Commissioner Dan Beebe is sticking to his guns about no need to expand the Big XII back to twelve teams. Mainly because their television deal will not increase with two more teams since no additional team, not even BYU, can bring in $17 million. So, the ten team league looks to be staying at ten for the foreseeable future:
"Our member institutions look forward to the continuation of excellent competition and providing outstanding experiences for our student-athletes. The 10-school model is one that is extremely attractive and provides the opportunity for continued long-term success."
"As I have stated previously, there is no interest in expansion and it was not a consideration at the gathering," he said.
Then at the Big XII meetings earlier this week Beebe stated again the league is in for the long haul with ten teams:
"The 10-school model is one that is extremely attractive and provides the opportunity for continued long-term success. As I have stated previously, there is no interest in expansion and it was not a consideration at the gathering."
BYU looks to be stuck in a non-BCS league for the foreseeable future, and all they can do is keep winning to improve their profile to become more attractive to the Big XII. Another option that is more conceivable in the short term is for the Mountain West to become a BCS league, so that BYU can be back on equal footing with their rival Utah.
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