BYU Declares Football Independence

Provo, UT - 9/1/10 -  BYU formally announced that its football program will become independent starting in 2011 and its other teams will join the West Coast Conference the same year.  The announcement was made at a noon press conference ending weeks of rumors and speculation that ultimately impacted three athletic conferences.

Athletic director Tom Holmoe said that the move had been studied for some time but now was the perfect time to make a change that would give BYU fans more access to games and give the LDS Church-owned institution more national exposure.  The combination of an eight-year deal with ESPN, a six-game series with Notre Dame, the completion of a state-of-the-art HD broadcast center and the expanding reach of BYU TV will allow  BYU to meet the goal of more access and exposure.

Sports broadcast giant ESPN announced that it will carry all BYU home football games for the next eight years and will help broker agreements with national powers to come play in Provo.  Dave Brown of ESPN noted that the biggest TV audience for BYU last season was the ESPN broadcast of the BYU-Oklahoma game in Cowboy Stadium and that the next biggest audience was the ESPN aired Las Vegas Bowl.  

Holmoe also announced an agreement with Notre Dame to play 6 games through 2020.   BYU would also play teams from the WAC in 2011 and 2012 to round out the schedule.  Holmoe said the program is looking for home and home series with national powers and that, with the help of ESPN, he is confident  the Cougars will attract quality opponents to come play at LaVell Edward Stadium.

BYU TV plays an integral part in the plans for more national exposure.  BYU will now be able to broadcast and rebroadcast games to a national audience, something that it could not do with current broadcast agreements.  BYU TV is on the basic tier of Dish Network, Direct TV as well as 500 cable systems, available to over 55 million households nationally.  Combined with the ESPN coverage, all home football and men's basketball games will now be seen throughout the country as well as internationally through BYU TV.

The men's basketball team and 11 other sports will join the West Coast Conference, a league of faith-based institutions in California, Oregon and Washington.  Holmoe noted that 58% of BYU alumni live in the league's new boundaries and that all schools are within two hours flight time from BYU.  WCC commissioner, Jamie Zaninovich, called the addition of BYU a good fit philosophically and athletically and said the addition of BYU would  give the the conference instant national exposure. Zaninovich indicated that the WCC has no other plans for expansion.

BYU's move to independence has had a major impact on the collegiate athletic landscape of the western U.S.  The WCC is now expanded and will have another quality  basketball team to add to its already strong league that includes Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.  The Mountain West Conference added two WAC teams, Nevada and Fresno State, in an attempt to mitigate the loss of BYU and prevent the Cougar's other sports teams from joining the Western Athletic Conference, as originally planned.  The big loser in the shuffle, the now six-team WAC,  faces an uncertain future.