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BYU Going IndependentI recently learned that everybody's favorite Mormon university, BYU (Brigham Young University for long), is going to go independent in football and joining the West Coast Conference in all other sports. Personally, I am mildly surprised by this move by BYU specifically, but I am not surprised that this happened in general. In fact, I think that they are only the first of many teams to do so. I am surprised that BYU is going independent because they are rather on the periphery of college football. Not exactly an annual, major power, but they are pretty consistently good and can give a lot of major programs a run for their money at the very least. They have a built-in recruiting and fan base in the constantly growing Mormon religion, but nobody is going to mistake them for Notre Dame anytime soon. They were in the original WAC, which overexpanded, and they joined the group that left to form the Mountain West Conference, which may also be expanding beyond what a non-AQ conference can bear. However, it seems that BYU wanted to test its own waters of independence, and I personally think that they will be fine. BYU probably was none too happy about losing their in-state rival (Utah) to the Pac-10, and they have been overshadowed by TCU and Utah as of late. Now Boise State is coming in to steal more thunder, leaving the Cougars as something of an afterthought in a conference where they were once the feature attraction. I can guess that it is something of a sore spot for them. So they are giving independence a go. I cannot even begin to guess how it will turn out; only time can give an answer to that. Why This Is Only the BeginningIn all the talk about superconferences and two-tier conference playoffs and figuring out which conference Notre Dame is going to join (the safest bet is none of them, by the way), we have overlooked a fundamental flaw in all this craze for conference joining. And that is the fact that the conference alignments have become a royal mess. The conferences have become bloated and there are just too many marriages of convenience in all this highly-aligned muck. A lot of teams are bouncing around from one conference to another in an attempt to find the place where they belong, all the while looking for an opportunity to move one more rung up the conference ladder. To return to our original point, we have a lot of teams that are locked into conference affiliations with teams they really don't share anything in common with. The SEC, Pac-10, and Big Ten are essentially regional entities that share a culture as well as a conference. The Big XII is separated into two regions: Texas and the Midwest. However, the ACC stretches from South Florida to Boston and picks up parts of the Deep South and the Eastern Seaboard. The Big East includes Appalachia, Greater New York, Florida, and much of the Ohio River. And Conference USA... I'm not sure there's any part of the country they don't cover. The thing here is that a lot of these schools share nothing with each other except a conference. They vary widely in talent and ability. There are schools that are going to look around at the other teams they are thrown in with and wonder, "What are we doing here? Who are these people?" I'm sure some teams wonder if their conference affiliations are holding them back from living up to their potential, or at least finding someplace where they really belong. I'm sure TCU is right now. Utah was. So were Colorado and Nebraska. A lot of these schools are in associations they don't much like, but feel like they need to keep to retain a place at the table. However, marriages of convenience don't last in the long run. Schools that don't have much in common with their conference brethren are going to look elsewhere, or even look to be happily alone to take their chances on independence and a potential shot of their own at the BCS. When some of them start succeeding, then many others will follow. The days of conferences growing have come to an end for the time being. There is, honestly, almost no way for the conferences to grow any more. The structure is going to be pulled apart as teams find their own level. It will be an interesting time and a surprising one, as all interesting times are. However, things will shake out as they will, leaving a new landscape that we will consider to be normal, and independence trends that we will likely consider to be the inevitable future of all teams. |
Columns |
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The firing of John Junker and corruption at the Fiesta Bowl. Suffice to say, wow. This is big. |
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Some revelations of some kind about someone doing something they shouldn't. Surprise, surprise. This time it's at... uh... let's see here... Auburn. |
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A few notes and lessons from the Jim Tressel revelations. |
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A few comments on and in relation to the the new Big Ten division names and the flap created thereby. Contains some strong language. |
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A few comments on the firing Rich Rodriguez. A reign that held such hope for the maize 'n' blue has turned to so much dust. |
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A few comments on the NCAA's treatment of a few players. |
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Urban Meyer's Retirement, Part II The Controversy Known as Les Miles |