Here is the BYU press release on the school departing the Mountain West while taking football independent and moving all other sports to the West Coast Conference:
PROVO, Utah (Aug. 31, 2010) — Brigham Young University today announced it resigned from the Mountain West Conference, effective June 30, 2011.
Additionally, the University announced its football program will compete in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as an independent beginning fall 2011. BYU has accepted an invitation to join the West Coast Conference as a full member for men’s basketball and other sports, beginning the 2011-12 athletic season.
Further information will be provided at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 1 at LaVell Edwards Stadium beginning at noon (MT). The press conference is available only to credentialed members of the media.
The University will have no further comment until the press conference Wednesday.
Jay Drew of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE and Jon Wilner of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS were the first to break the landmark news for the West Coast Conference.
Wilner also noted in his report today the effect the move by BYU may have on the WAC and the Mountain West conference:
The move, which takes effect for the 2011-12 season, changes the face of major college sports in the western third of the country — weakening the Mountain West (BYU’s current home) and strengthening the WCC, whose members include three Bay Area schools: Santa Clara, St. Mary’s and USF.
(It’s impossible to overstate the significance of this development for the WCC, which is about to begin renegotiating its ESPN contract.
(Yes, there are scheduling questions to be answered — BYU doesn’t play on Sundays — but my guess is that BYU and WCC officials have already worked through them.)
The move is also a blow to the Western Athletic Conference, which had hoped to provide a home for BYU’s non-football teams even though it lost Fresno State and Nevada to the Mountain West.
There may be some additional hangups in the transition, as noted by Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune on Twitter: “Sources tells the Tribune that the 12 sports BYU has that overlap with WCC will go there. Unclear where softball, track and swimming end up.”
As I’ve said all along, I think this move is primarily due to BYU rival Utah landing a spot in the Pac-10 while the Cougars were jilted by the same conference.
When Utah becomes a full-fledged member of the Pac-10 and the conference settles on a new TV deal, the Utes are reportedly due to score a $15 million TV windfall per year.
Meanwhile, had BYU stayed in the Mountain West, it would have been relegated to a mere $1.5 million in annual television revenue.
In the end, BYU showed it would rather set out on its own than allow for that discrepancy.
UPDATE: The Mountain West released the following statement about BYU’s departure:
Since its inception, the Mountain West Conference has worked strategically to grow and strengthen the league, in order to position itself at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics,” said MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson. “Our Board of Directors’ diligent exploration of options to advance the membership’s objectives is ongoing. This includes conversations with our television partners to address issues of mutual importance, as well as determining the optimal configuration for the Conference and investigating the possibility of various collaborative alliances. We look forward to the future with great excitement - particularly welcoming recent additions Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada into the Mountain West.”
A carefully-worded quote by Thompson to be sure. Exactly what “collaborative alliances” means I have no idea.
Sounds a little like a thinly-veiled signal that absolutely, positively nothing is off the table - including breaking contracts - when it comes facilitating a television cash grab. TV money is responsible for all of the recent realignment by various NCAA schools, with BYU’s departure from the MWC certainly no exception.
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7:04 pm on August 31st, 2010
Utah may be a good fit for the PAC, time will tell. But BYU never had a chance, not .00001% chance of ever being asked to join the PAC. The PAC will never have a church owned school, nor allow a school to refuse to play certain days, and first and foremost, the PAC will never allow such an openly gay bashing school.
7:31 pm on August 31st, 2010
It’s about time BYU has associated itself with the finest of private universities out west. Good by Laramie, Fort Collins, NM and Vegas. Hello Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Malibu. I can now travel to nicer climates for Cougar sports. Yes, their gyms are small, but we will fill them with Cougar fans. Instant cash bonus for the WCC. We will feel right at home with other faith-based organizations. An independent football team is a blessing to the great recruits that are flocking into Provo.
7:36 pm on August 31st, 2010
You’re funny Arnold. I’m guessing from your ignorance that you’re not aware that the University of Utah was founded by Mormon prophet Brigham Young, is coached by BYU graduate and Mormon Kyle Whittingham, is largely made up of the same Mormon people BYU has, has a Mormon president at its helm, has a sizeable group of Mormon players, and so on. So you can take your “gay bashing” phobia and stew on the fact that the overwhelming majority of University of Utah folks are poured out of the same mold as BYU’s.
7:50 pm on August 31st, 2010
You can ignore this guy, he is a byu fan pretending to be a Utah fan. Utah fans respect others and don’t think they are better than other people.
8:20 pm on August 31st, 2010
As a BYU fan, I can’t be happy with this at all. This is the most ridiculous decision BYU has ever made. Even more ridiculous than hiring Gary Crowton in the first place. The longer BYU stays in the WCC, the sooner the school will have to drop sports completely. If you’re a BYU fan and you think this is a good idea, I have some prime real estate to sell you.
9:57 pm on August 31st, 2010
Hey arnol and the rest of you…there is no PAC conference, unless you mean the Patroit Athlectic Conference back east. There is a APC 10, soone to be PAC 12, but there is no PAC conference.
10:42 pm on August 31st, 2010
you are a ute fan/byuhater rather than a BYU fan. Why would moving to the WCC cause BYU sports to vanquish? All but four sports will be taken care of, and the othe four have NCAA sponsered leagues (except for swimming) that even the UCLA/Arizona’s and Utahs are a part of. Even at that, they all are meet heavy run, and you don’t need a conference.
Football programs at all schools finance the other sports, so BYU making more money going independent will only deepen the pockets of the other sports.
That arguement that BYU athletics will only disappear is an arguement from a Ute fan, not a Cougar!
12:18 am on September 1st, 2010
The fact that BYU chose to go with the West Coast Conference is a smart move over choosing to go non-football in a now decimated Western Athletic Conference. What about comparing the WAC with the WCC in non-football sports? BYU has gone to the NCAA Basketball tournament as a MWC Champion. Now they will provide a stark new competition for Gonzaga, whose gone to the Big Dance since 1998! The WCC is a better conference choice. Good for GYU. Sad what happened to the WAC.
8:35 am on September 1st, 2010
Does it really matter? BYU has been an afterthought for decades.
11:30 am on September 4th, 2010
Not a bad assessment. Utah leaving the conference was the catalyst for BYU’s independence. But they have wanted to do this for years. Problem was that if they left Utah in the MWC, the Utes would have been steamed enough to end the rivalry. And there aren’t many quality DI football teams in the area.
The Utes start out in the Pac-10 on a probationary basis. They won’t get any league money for that period. To generate revenue, they will need some solid home opponents. BYU provides that.
All smack aside, BYU & Utah compliment each other for the next couple of years.
PS-I’m really tired of the talk about gay marriage. It’s a non-issue. I know proponents want to frame the issue as a clash over Civil Rights. And opponents want to frame it as a question of 1st Amendment Rights. Ultimately the issue will be solved by the total abolition of all state-sanctioned marriages.
10:10 am on September 11th, 2010
As a TCU alum the exit of Utah and BYU from the Mountain West produces some interesting questions. My personal perception of both of these schools is that they have a “big dog” desire and want to be the center of attention in whatever they are involved in. Kind of like Texas in the Big 12. If the world does not rotate around them they seem to pout. Both of these schools have a long track-record of difficulty making conference agreements and then sticking with them over the long haul.
It is interesting that they both make decisions to jump the Mountain West ship just when the league is about to qualify as an automatic BCS conference. Gaining BCS status would eventually lead to solving whatever monetary issues those schools have. The Mountain West adding Boise State was a great move. If BYU and Utah had to fortitude to stay the course it would have created a league with 5 or 6 schools really capable of achieving a national ranking each year.
I do not buy their stated argument that leaving the Mountain West was strictly a monetary decision. I think the thought of playing second fiddle to TCU And Boise State for years to come in football was more than they could take with their narcissistic approach themselves. Evidently, Utah would rather be second fiddle to USC, UCLA, OREGON, and a couple of others, which is what is going to happen to them. The PAC 10 is about California/West Coast schools, and those schools will always be the center of media exposure. Utah has now become a little fish in an alleged bigger pond. Over the long haul, they are not going to like that a bit.
BYU can now be independent, schedule a bunch of second rate teams and post 10 or 11 wins a year as they toot their own horn and posture for national recognition without competing for anything meaningful. By the 4th week of every season they will have exhausted the possibility of consistently getting on the schedule of any of the top BCS league teams. To be hired as the person responsible for finding BYU football opponents could become the worst sports job in America.
I think Utah and BYU have shot themselves in the foot big-time. The Mountain West football conference was on the brink of achieving new status as a BCS league. I believe the addition of Boise State would have put a lock on that possibility! I don’t think the primo donnas (BYU and Utah) were willing to sit by and watch TCU and Boise State become the primary “powers” of the Mountain West.
12:47 pm on September 11th, 2010
Didn’t Utah beat TCU a year prior? Havent they been to two BCS bowl games. Winning both? How are they second fiddle to TCU? You really have the everything is bigger in Texas mentality don’t you?