Going Indepedent

BYU is going independent in football while joining the MCC in all other sports. This move received national attention for one day, then fell into obscurity on the national level. On a purely personal level I hope it fails, but I want it to fail because the BYU program is unsuccessful and for no other reason. I fear that this move to become independent has different motives from the obvious ones.

Lets mention the obvious advantages. First, the MWC was falling apart with the loss of Utah to the PAC-10. This move almost guarantees that the MWC will not receive an automatic qualifying bid for a BCS bowl game. Secondly, this is a move about money. College football is a business, a very successful business. Recent moves by the Big-10 has taught us that the money is found most abundantly in TV revenue. BYU is using this new trend to its advantage. BYU has all the technology available to create its own sports channel and no longer have to share this revenue with the other members of the MWC. Most you knew these two reasons that played as the biggest motivators for them to become independent. Lets address my conspiracy theory.

Three years ago I wrote for the Scroll, the school paper at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. I wrote both in sports and campus activities. During the course of the semester we were privileged to be able to have a sit-down interview as a collective staff with the President of BYU-I, Kim B. Clark. Each staff member was allowed to ask two topical questions with an appropriate amount of follow-up. The following exchange occurred, in paraphrase.

Me: Will we ever have an athletics program beyond intramural's?

President: I find it highly unlikely. We would probably see the dissolving of sports at BYU-Provo before we ever see a similar sports program exist at BYU-I.

Me: Why is that?

President: There are many reasons, but the one of highest concern to the Brethren is the obvious corruption becoming more and more prevalent in college sports. As the scriptures say "The worth of souls is great in the sight of the Lord", they are even more important than the BYU football and basketball teams. Anything that might jeopardize the values of the athletes will only be tolerated as long as it can be controlled within the BYU program itself.

I couldn't believe he said this! It was fantastic! I was so excited to write the story. Before printing the story I was told that I had to turn in my story and my notes to the Presidents office for approval. My story was denied, my notes were not returned and I was told that I should write a story about the intramural program rather than dwelling on an athletic program that we don't have.

A story that made no press nationally is the dismissal and confession of BYU running back Harvey Unga over the summer. He admitted to a sexual relationship with a fellow student. This might be considered normal and expected for your typical star athlete, but not at BYU. They take these matters very seriously and luckily this story was overlooked by most.

I see BYU going independent as a last attempt to keep BYU from filling the sports-ticker in the off-season with stories similar to that of Harvey. A story that taints not just the image of the school but also the Church that funds it. BYU now has the ability to run its own broadcasts. The HD signal will be coming out of their trucks, not The MTN, or ESPN's. They will have ultimate control during broadcasts. They will be able to create their schedules as they see fit to play fewer games in prime-time. This protects them from playing on Sunday and traveling to cities and locations that put their players in higher risks of temptation.

I speculate that they are hoping to remain independent until the day that super-conferences govern themselves outside of the NCAA and the money-grabbers at its head. If this happens, I suspect they would join a conference with the ability to have increased governing control of contact with agents and sponsors. In the mean time BYU will probably fly under the radar on the national level for the next couple of years, missing BCS games waiting for things to change so that the risk on the BYU student-athlete is reduced and controllable. The real question is this:

What if nothing changes in the land of college athletics? Will BYU be willing to risk it? Will the Church be willing to risk it?

No. No they won't.