It has been more than 30 years since BYU won a National Championship in football. Things have changed quite a bit since 1984. Many of the larger schools were upset that the undefeated BYU team (who played in the Western Athletic Conference-WAC) played a 6-6 Michigan team in its final game, and changes soon followed. Power conferences originally set up the Bowl Alliance where they tried to pit the #1 vs #2 teams to play. It was definitely an improvement, but the Pacific 10 (Pac-10) Conference refused to participate for a few years, and sometimes the Pac-10 had one of the two best teams. This led to the Bowl Championship Series that included the Pac-10 teams. It was basically a coalition of the largest conferences who tended to dominate college football. Besides the Pac-10 Conference, the conferences who participated included the Big Ten, Big Twelve, Big East, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and the Southeastern Conference (SEC.) These conferences generally left out teams like BYU, Utah, and Boise State (members of the Western Athletic Conference or Mountain West Conference), so the system was tweaked again to allow teams from other conferences to participate.
About 5 years ago, some of these larger conferences were looking to expand. The Big Ten added Penn State (previously independent) in 1990 and kept their name of Big Ten despite having 11 teams. In 2009, some of the larger leagues wanted larger television contracts and wanted to add more geographically diverse schools. In addition, the NCAA allows conferences to play a championship game if there are at least 12 teams, so the Big 10 decided to add Nebraska (from the Big 12), Rutgers (Big East), and Maryland (ACC), causing other leagues to start raiding other leagues.
The Pac-10, decided to make a huge splash and tried to expand by inviting 6 teams from the Big 12 Conference. Colorado accepted, but Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State decided to stay put. This gave an opening to the University of Utah to join Colorado in the Pac-10 Conference, which has been renamed the Pac-12 Conference now. But that didn’t stop the Big 12 from hemorrhaging. Texas thought it could make more money by creating its own television network (with the help and guidance from ESPN). In turn this upset Texas A&M, their chief rival, so A&M decided to abandon the Big 12 to join the SEC. Confused yet? Well the Big Ten has 14 teams, while the Big Twelve has just 10 (and neither conference has plans to change names.)
Meanwhile the basketball schools from the Big East decided to abandon the Big East and take the name with them. The Old Big East, desperate for new teams, invited the BYU and Boise State to join their conference (and have a new name of the American Athletic Conference-AAC.) The Big Twelve then lost Missouri to the SEC, and was concerned it would be raided by other conferences. The ACC decided to add Boston College, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, and Miami University from the Big East. With the Big East/AAC crumbling, it seems the BYU made a wise decision not to join, and Boise State decided to back out of their previously announced move to the Big East/AAC. BYU wasn’t sure what was going to happen to the Big 12, and because they hesitated, the Big Twelve added TCU (from MWC) and West Virginia (from Big East) instead of BYU, and the Big 12 currently has just 10 teams.
Things seem to have stabilized. BYU, seeing Utah leave the Mountain West Conference (MWC) for much more money in the Pac-12 Conference, decided to abandon the Mountain West Conference in football and become independent. They signed what seemed like a huge television contract, earning approximately $5-6 million per year for an 8 year contract with ESPN (up from an estimated $1.5 million as a member of the MWC.) However, there are some drawbacks. Other sports are suffering because BYU has moved to the West Coast Conference (WCC), a much lower-profile conference which has hurt BYU’s ability to recruit athletes. The drop has been notable in not just football (where Utah as a member of the Pac-12 has seen a huge boost in recruiting and has beaten BYU 4 years in a row), but all other sports BYU participates in (with the exception of rugby, where BYU won the National Championship this weekend for the 4th year in a row.)
Additionally, the future of college football allows teams from larger conferences to pay athletes more money. If BYU wants to keep up with the Joneses, they are going to have to pay athletes too, and they have pledged to do so. As a result, they are making open overtures to the Big 12 Conference, as it seems the most likely geographical fit, as well as the fact that many of the Pac-12 schools just plain don’t like BYU. The Pac-10 Conference refused to play BYU in the 1970s due to the the priesthood ban, and the fact is that many schools such as Stanford and UCLA are much more liberal politically and just don’t want to worry about BYU. Utah will probably make around $8 million per year under the current Pac-12 television deal (a reported $8 billion to the league), and it appears BYU is falling further behind in the money war, despite it’s huge pay increase from ESPN. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall is actively campaigning to join the Big 12 Conference.
But big money comes with other issues. Utah, now a member of the Pac-12 Conference, plays on Sundays, a big no-no for BYU. As a member of the WAC and MWC, BYU was a big fish in a little pond, and dictated that there would be no Sunday play. The WCC, despite being all private religious institutions, used to play on Sundays. With the addition of BYU, they have relented and do not require BYU to play on Sundays and have moved tournaments to avoid Sunday play. The addition of BYU was a huge boost to the WCC, but for BYU, the level of competition has suffered. In short, it was great for the WCC to add BYU, but has not been great for BYU. A general authority recently noted that BYU is the ONLY school in the NCAA that will not play games on Sundays.
Will this be a problem for the Big 12, or will they make the accommodation for BYU that the WCC did? It remains to be seen. The Big 12 used to have a conference championship in football, but now that they are just 10 teams, they do not hold a championship anymore. It hurt them this past year. TCU and Baylor, two religiously affiliated schools from the Big 12, were shut out of the new College Football playoff because they did not play a conference championship like the Big 10, Pac-12, SEC, and ACC leagues did. The selection committee specifically cited the Big 12’s lack of championship as a reason for the snub. This has led some to speculate that the Big 12 needs to add BYU (and another team) in order to level the playing field. But thus far, the Big 12 has resisted efforts to expand. BYU officials have publicly stated that they believe there will be at least one more wave of conference realignment, but the question is, will BYU drop the Sunday play rule to join the Big 12? Other schools, notably San Diego State, have noted that BYU isn’t fun to deal with as a conference member, in order to improve SDSU’s chance of joining other conferences. Connecticut has long campaigned to join another conference and wants to get out of the AAC, which is no longer considered a “Power Conference” due to the loss of big schools like Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech. BYU’s scheduling issues are becoming harder: the SEC and ACC have made a new policy that non-league games can only involve “Power 5” conferences, and since BYU is not in a conference, they can’t schedule games against those leagues. They already are having a tough time scheduling football games. Other leagues are talking about a similar rule, and the Pac-12 and Big Ten have an arrangement that has caused Utah to drop BYU from the schedule last year and this coming year, although the series is scheduled to resume in 2016. (Utah will instead play Michigan.) So here are some questions.
Wheat & Tares 
I believe SEC schools and others will be required to play a certain number of Power 5 schools but they are not required to play ONLY Power 5 schools. And some conferences consider BYU to be a power 5 school.
But that doesn’t really matter, you still raise interesting points.
I have been a big BYU fan for a long time and I have followed this conference realignment with great interest. The fact is, though, teams consider BYU to be hard to deal with and conferences like the Big 12 might not want them even if BYU agrees to play on Sunday. If that were the only reason, I could see BYU feeling more pressure to think about changing their policy. But even then, I doubt they would do it. And since that is not the only reason, I very highly doubt they will make a change regarding Sunday play. The honor code has hurt them for years with recruiting top athletes but they haven’t budged on that, in fact, they have enforced it more strictly lately than in the past.
In short, while the church has certainly adjusted its policies due to societal pressure, I think it only does that when it feels it absolutely has to. I think the church likes being stubborn about BYU Sunday play and the honor code and they want to show the world that in this instance, at least, they are not willing to budge.
The professionalizing of college sports is just going to continue and Sunday play, along with a lot of other baggage, is inevitable. The pool of students who want to go to BYU is unaffected by the presence of collegiate sports and is growing faster than BYU’s capacity to admit them. If collegiate sports is important to a student there are dozens of choices that can satisfy that need. BYU should voluntarily leave the cesspool and focus on its unique market niche in higher education.
It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if BYU in Provo followed the path of BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii and dropped intercollegiate sports. That would happen long before Sunday games.
BYU would cease to be what it is if the University Admin gave into pressure to schedule sporting events on Sundays. In fact, I’d rather see ALL collegiate sports take Sundays off. That’s more for the “Pros”, especially in football. Watching the 49ers and/or SF Giants in the afternoon after Church is practically a Sunday institution with me anyway.
With all the money the church has recently invested in the new student-athlete training facilities and television broadcast studios, I can’t see the church abandoning BYU sports entirely.
I think the Church considers sports “breaking the sabbath” only when it’s a non-paid recreational activity. At the professional level, it’s a job, and if the job requires Sunday work, so be it. So Dale Murphy and Gifford Neilsen, who spent their entire careers working on Sunday, can be general authorities and mission presidents.
Here’s the work-around: Pay collegiate athletes–society is moving that way anyway–and then it’s a job (not recreation) and Sunday play becomes okay.
[remove tongue from cheek here]
#5 – the distinction is that the Church has discretion as to have a sports program for its flagship university and can dictate conditions of participation: no Sunday games being one of them. Individual members that choose sports careers are almost always faced with the dilemma of Sunday work: Pro Athletes have ‘worked’ on Sundays for many decades and LDS, along with others with strong convictions about the Sabbath (including Adventists) have typically played on. An notable exception was that Sandy Koufax would not pitch on Yom Kippur, so he didn’t start game 1 of the 1965 World Series (switching with Drysdale).
LDS members avoid ‘working’ on the Sabbath to the extent that their circumstances make reasonable. I’m sure that Russell M. Nelson has performed surgery on a Sunday or at least would have if the patient(s) needs dictated it. A manager of a Sandy, Utah, Pizza Hut would likely try to not work Sundays but if his boss wants the store open AND his supervisory staff also have religious concerns, he’d at least rotate the Sunday work fairly. Of course, members who become cops, nurses, or other professions that don’t necessarily have the Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 schedule are likewise familiar with Sunday work. Much of the ‘tradition’ (Yum-de-de-de-diddle-yum-de-didil-ayh!) of the Sabbath stems from an agrarian society, wherein ‘resting’ one day in seven probably served to keep farmers from working themselves and their families into an early grave, but did require ‘faith’ during harvest season, when often timing is the difference between profit or loss, or even, in the subsistence situation, life or death!
Hence why (1) The Sabbath for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and (2) it’s not good to be commanded in ALL things.
I think the most likely senario is BY remains in the kiddie pool; they will stay a mid to small major team, playing teams like US and Wyoming. Once they and their fan base accept that, they can stop spending way to much trying to pretend they are something they aren’t.
#7 – Once the current corrupt system, where you have entrenched monied programs at literal ‘old schools’, wherein a relatively fresh upstart like Boise State is virtually hamstrung from a serious shot at the so-called “Number One” title, is overthrown and a pure playoff system is in place (it works for other sports and the ‘lower’ football levels quite nicely), THEN we shall see how BYU fares. I’m definitely not a “Zoobie”, even though I’ve sent offspring there (after more than 30 years out I still ‘bleed’ Fresno State Bulldog Red), but methinks that the “Y” football program can hang with the best. The proof is to play it on the gridiron, fool…
MH,
BYU lost their chance. They will never have the fan base of a Notre Dame; thus, going independent was not a good move. The U got the only slot Utah will every receive in a good (Pac-12 type) conference.
Personally, I’m glad. They will get worse and the Utes will get better being in a better conference.
As it is a church sponsored school. No Sunday play in the foreseeable future….
Ancient Greek dramas started at sunrise. There was a theater group in Salt Lake City that tried doing that, but found that was more authenticity than audiences wanted, and they fell back to starting a couple hours after sunrise. I googled for “Greek”, “drama”, and “sunrise”; the top search result was for Wikipedia, and the second is a 1975 Deseret News article:
“What could be more stimulating and exciting than an ancient Greek drama, in an outdoor setting at sunrise?
“‘We are trying to give some notion of the kind of experience the theater-goer can have in seeing a Greek play comparable to what the Athenian citizen would have seen when “Trojan Women” was first produced in 415 B.C.’
“Dr. Keith Engar, chairman of the University of Utah Theater Department was describing the Classical Theater Festival production scheduled at the U. Aug. 5 and 6, at 6 a.m.”
I saw this group do Oedipus Rex in 1990 in Emigration Canyon at 8 AM. The thrill of that performance, particularly the chorus, came back to mind two months ago, Sunday morning, March 8th, the first morning of Daylight Savings Time, sitting in our sunlit chapel listening to the testimonies of my fellow ward members.
Sorry, wrong tab with that last comment.
#11 A cool comment all the same. Where *were* you trying to post it?
On topic: I’m trying to imagine a universe where BYU didn’t have an athletic program. Being neither a BYU grad nor a sports fan I don’t really care, but it’d be funny to watch some heads explode among the LDS population.
#8- (Douglas) ” Once the current corrupt system, where you have entrenched monied programs… is overthrown ” Translation: Never. You won’t be able to separate these schools from their cash cows, anymore than you can separate congress from lobbyist. While it might be “better” for everyone, it’s not better for those in charge, so it won’t happen.
I just heard that BYU will pay each scholarship athlete $4,500 per year. This puts them in the top 10% nationwide.
Perhaps MH knew about this when he created this post, I don’t know, just thought I would pass it along.
I wish I could claim some inside knowledge, but I just got lucky I guess.
#16 – Oh to be a fly on the wall (of the BYU Football Locker room, but as with most locker rooms that’s have to be one TOUGH fly…) and hear what goes on in private.
The OP ought to have been, “Can BYU afford to compromise its standards in order to achieve athletic successes?”. Other universities, worshipping fame, glory, the almighty buck, and lavish facilities, already answered that question for themselves. “Leatherheads” it ain’t no more…
Whatever happens to BYU sports, I wish they could run their athletic department without tithing. 3 years ago every single NCAA member institution reported their athletic departments had to tap into general university funds and since it was every member institution it included BYU. Perhaps they’ve cleaned up their act since that shocking report. (Not so shocking about schools like BYU having to dip into general university funds, but powerhouses like Ohio State and Alabama having to do so was a real surprise.) The most recent report announced a couple of schools now make a profit but those schools weren’t identified so perhaps BYU was among them-who knows anything directly when it comes to Church finances? (I think BYU and many other schools for different reasons were caught by surprise when all of the schools reported to losing money. BYU probably thought they would just be buried with other schools reporting an operating loss and could just stonewall or continue their charade about no tithing money being used. I trust they’ve tightened up financially or doubled down on their misleading tithing statements.)
They need to do everything in their power, short of Sabbath games, to get into a conference. They don’t have the cache to make those kinds of scheduling demands of a power conference so they will probably be on the outside looking in. From time to time they might catch lightning in a bottle (Jimmer Fredette whom nobody else really recruited) and have a great season or two but until they get into a power conference they will languish in the second or third tier of competitive sports programs with occasional break out years. That’s not necessarily a bad place to be. It is where the vast majority of college programs are.
We will probably get a good indication of where the program(s) will be heading when the ESPN contract comes back up. If they’re able to renew the contract for more money that will augur well. If ESPN moves on or decreases their contract offer (most likely, imo) then BYU will probably begin a financial death spiral since they don’t have any conference money coming in, at least for football. Sports at the level BYU enjoys are very, very expensive. Keep your eye on the next TV contract…