Well BYU, you did it. In the process of chasing the coattails of your rival you have gone independent and left a trail of destruction of not one, but two conferences in your wake. You spent the last 10 years building the Mountain West Conference into what is today, and just when we were on the brink of completion, and possibly doing something very special you set fire to the building and ran.
I'm not sure what you think will be gained by this move. Sure you will get a little more money and you will play some games on the "Evil Four-Letter" and you can show off your sweet HD studio that nobody cares about, but besides that what will this accomplish? All of your sports are now vanquished to the WCC, actually check that, the WCC doesn't even have all of your sports so I'm sure those student-athletes and coaches are thrilled right now. Also just because ESPN seems like the green grass right now remember that you agreed to the creation of The Mtn so we could escape that contract and all of the weeknight games that came with it.
What will your football team play for now? You won't be playing for conference championships, national championships, or even BCS berths. In my estimation your team now plays on for "televangelism" (thanks Hooper) and nothing more. You will play a myriad schedule of complete jokes from the WAC for an easy "W" and just enough legitimate programs to get you to 3-4 losses each year thus remaining completely irrelevant on a national level. To quote the great TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson:
"If you are BYU, you have to be careful what you wish for."
Fans in this conference have long bit their tongue and been respectful to you but all of that ends today, and from now on you will truly feel the hate. BYU has one of the most obnoxious fan-bases around, and it has nothing to do with your religious preferences and everything to do with the disrespectful and arrogant way you carry yourself as a whole. Again I am talking about "BYU football fans" not the Mormon's as a whole.
This goes back all the way to the WAC days when I was a child at a WAC Championship game in Las Vegas and a group of BYU fans sat behind my family in the Air Force section and were so verbally abusive that my grandfather asked them to stop, to which they disrespectfully declined and even amped it up a bit to the point where we had to leave so my grandfather wouldn't get arrested.
I partially feel bad for you all because I think that it's mostly that you are all just socially inept, much like a kid who has been home-schooled his whole life, but that is really no excuse for the way I have seen many BYU fans carry themselves towards "outsiders." If you thought Rice-Eccles was hostile I recommend you star far away from Amon Carter Stadium on October 16th because you will need much more than a beer poncho on the night that the Frogs stomp a mud-hole in your shiny new quarterback.
Now I am starting to ramble so I will close with this, goodbye and good riddance BYU, I hope you enjoy your short trip to everlasting college football obscurity.