interesting move by BYU

[gh]

You probably noticed that BYU has gone independent in football, and will join the WCC (leaving teh Mountain West) in everything else.

But I only just realized that the WCC doesn't have track. Yow!

[odelltrclan]

Re: interesting move by BYU

Bizarre! Idiotic head scratched if you ask me. What can they possibly be thinking!

[gh]

Re: interesting move by BYU

They're thinking about the independent football contract they just signed with ESPN and going ka-ching, ka-ching all the way to the bank!

[odelltrclan]

Re: interesting move by BYU

And pissing on all the rest of their athletics programs and athletes to boot. Did they really get that good of a deal from ESPN? Details?

[gh]

Re: interesting move by BYU

8-year contract

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4483 ... its-bounds

[ross sez]

Re: interesting move by BYU

BYU should have no problem winning the conference titles for Track then...

[Marlow]

Re: interesting move by BYU

And pissing on all the rest of their athletics programs and athletes to boot. Did they really get that good of a deal from ESPN? Details?

Follow the money. The contract will HELP them run those other sports.

[polevaultpower]

Re: interesting move by BYU

A number of WCC schools do have track teams (generally not very good ones though, generally just extensions of the cross country team). They don't sponsor a conference championships because not enough schools in the conference have teams, but BYU could bring them to the tipping point. But it wouldn't matter much in the short term, BYU would just decimate the WCC schools.

I used to coach at a DII school looking to move DI that really wanted to join the WCC... and got rejected.


I think it's a weird move for BYU. The WCC is a huge step down in terms of competition. You're a major DI athletics powerhouse competing against primarily small catholic schools. Yeah, Gonzaga has been a basketball powerhouse, but outside of that ONE school in ONE sport, I am not sure how the WCC offers BYU competition in any sport.

[Halfmiler2]

Re: interesting move by BYU

A few months ago, we heard all the football powers were going to end up in four mega-conferences. Now, a major team goes independent. I guess you never know. :roll:

One factor in BYU's consideration: for religious reasons, they won't join any conference that would make them play basketball on a Sunday. That knocked out the PAC-10/12/16.

[L.Arrhenius]

Re: interesting move by BYU

thought you might like a byu track athlete's perspective....

This is a very interesting move by byu and it's been in the works for a number of years. The move is good for football and basketball in my opinion and the whole athletic program just because it gives them more exposure, freedom, and potentially more money if it all works out. Football now has more freedom to schedule certain games and with byutv we can broadcast our away games and rebroadcast any of the espn games as much as we want. It's good if you are a byu fan just because you will be able to see every football and basketball game on basic cable tv all season long. The mtn tv network is retarded and is horrible, so it's good to get away from that. It also maybe nice because byutv will be able to broadcast cc meets live and track meets live so in a way the track athletes could get more exposure to the fans and nation. It sucks that the wcc doesn't have track though...i dont know what that is all about. Our coach said that our AD's are trying to find a conference for us to get into...the swimming and softball teams are in the same boat. Stupid because track is the most dominant sport here at byu if you look at conference championships and all-americans and national champions....softball and swimming are pretty dang good as well. I hear we are trying to get into the big 12 in track but i dont think thats going to happen, but i dont know if we will join any of the smaller conferences. Too bad the wac deal didn't go through. I guess worst case scenario is that we go mpsf for indoor conference and outdoors we just don't have a conference and focus on doing good at nationals. Just another case of people up high not caring about track.

[26mi235]

Re: interesting move by BYU

thought you might like a byu track [FIELD? ]athlete's perspective....

It also maybe nice because byutv will be able to broadcast cc meets live and track meets live so in a way the track athletes could get more exposure to the fans and nation.

[Interesting]

It sucks that the wcc doesn't have track though...i don't know what that is all about.

Any chance that means that the conference has indicated that they will try to upgrade T&F?

[gh]

Re: interesting move by BYU

Is it possible a big reason the WCC doesn't have track is because some/many of the members don't have A track, period?

[Wmbgskip]

Re: interesting move by BYU

There's always the MPSF, or asking the Pac-12 for an affiliate membership. They're having two affiliate teams in swimming this year, I believe.

[jeremyp]

Re: interesting move by BYU

Didn't the U of U also get out of track and only recently build another oval?

[jeremyp]

Re: interesting move by BYU

Wonder what Henry Marsh, Ralph Mann, Doug Padilla, Paul Cummings, not to mention Jay Sylvester (coached there), think about this. Or Lasse Viren and Pekka Vasala (brief non competitive forays.)