Predicting the future

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

But BYU is in the mountain west, which has few eyeballs. Compared to the east coast which has a lot of eyeballs. If you are going to travel far, why not east? East is better than west.

Just because a lot of people live in Ohio doesn't mean any of them will care about the Big 12. They don't care about Cincinnati. They are Ohio State fans. The WAC-16 made that mistake once. Adding teams that happen to live in a large market means pretty much nothing if no one in that market cares about the local team.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by BlueK

Just because a lot of people live in Ohio doesn't mean any of them will care about the Big 12. They don't care about Cincinnati. They are Ohio State fans. The WAC-16 made that mistake once. Adding teams that happen to live in a large market means pretty much nothing if no one in that market cares about the local team.

it's not about what a school is, it's about what it can be.

Look at Utah's trajectory since joining the Pac-12.

BYU doesn't have a lot of growth potential. It can only take back market share from Utah that it has lost.

TCU was nothing. But now it's becoming something.

A school can start to capture the imagination of its region.

BYU is a very small national brand. Back in the day BYU had the ability to sell a unique kind of product--a pass-happy team. Now BYU has nothing distinctive about it, except for the notable lack of African-American athletes.

[BlueK]

Speaking of predicting the future. I don't have any more comment on BYU going to the Big 12. So this comment is unrelated to that. But I will say I sense that for BYU sports in general for 2015-16 that it will be a very good year. I haven't felt this way about sports at BYU as a whole in quite a while.

The only caveat I'll add to that is, football is probably the one I have the most questions about. And unfortunately that is the most important sport in terms of how a school's athletics are perceived. However, it's just that I'm not totally sure. My reservations don't mean I'm sure they'll suck. I think the offense will be good. Also, in the past when Bronco has managed the defense it has been good, so I'm hopeful they'll get both sides of the ball playing well this year. If so, it will be a pretty good year despite what seems like a difficult schedule. And by "pretty good" I don't mean 8-5 again. I think they can get double digit wins if both sides of the ball are playing well. I'm also basing that partially on the thought that the schedule may not really be as hard as the name brand value of the teams we're playing. Nebraska and Michigan I don't think are as good as their name right now. I think they're both beatable.

Basketball I am very excited about. Dave Rose can seem to manage to get 25 wins even when he doesn't have a lot of talent and there are big holes, like in the frontcourt last year. This year the holes are filled and the increased depth and balance will make a big difference, IMO. This year we'll have a much better team than last.

BYU is also going to be pretty good to excellent in most of the other sports. Womens soccer in particular is seriously good this year, and womens volleyball played for a national championship last year and has most of the team back. Both are ranked pretty high nationally right now. Baseball has had some killer recruiting classes since Coach Littlewood came on and I think may be ready to get back to the NCAA tournament.

[BlueK]

This take on expansion is very well researched. You don't have to agree on its conclusions, but I think they're based on very sound reasoning and facts. He does say positive things about BYU that most BYU fans would agree with. He also says the Big 12 and BYU need to work to get on the same page because it would be mutually beneficial. He doesn't know if that will happen.

He also seems to have a pretty good read on the dysfunctional dynamics within the Big 12 which is leading them to make unsound decisions. He never states an allegiance other than he was a big Houston basketball fan back in the days of Phi Slamma Jamma. You could say the piece maybe is a little University of Oklahoma centric, but I don't know if he's an OU fan or not. Still, it makes a lot of sense, and it's indisputable that OU has tried multiple times to leave the Big 12 because of the dysfunctions he points out.

http://sportsminorityreport.blogspot...1_archive.html

[BlueK]

This take on expansion is very well researched. You don't have to agree on its conclusions, but I think they're based on very sound reasoning and facts. He does say positive things about BYU that most BYU fans would agree with. He also says the Big 12 and BYU need to work to get on the same page because it would be mutually beneficial.

He also seems to have a pretty good read on the dysfunctional dynamics within the Big 12 which is leading them to make unsound decisions. He never states an allegiance other than he was a big Houston basketball fan back in the days of Phi Slamma Jamma. You could say the piece maybe is a little University of Oklahoma centric, but I don't know if he's an OU fan or not. Still, it makes a lot of sense, and it's indisputable that OU has tried multiple times in the last five years to leave the Big 12 because of the dysfunctions he points out.

http://sportsminorityreport.blogspot...1_archive.html

[ChinoCoug]

BYU has the upper hand vis-a-vis the Big 12? Say what?

BYU is not horrible at research. Not great, but not horrible.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

BYU has the upper hand vis-a-vis the Big 12? Say what?

BYU is not horrible at research. Not great, but not horrible.

He makes some very strong arguments, I think as to why if they're looking at glorified CUSA teams to expand it's a bad idea for the conference longterm.

He overstates the research thing but even still identifies BYU as bringing strong academics compared to the other schools the B12 may be looking at. He doesn't see research as the only thing that matters with academics. He just points out that it's the thing the P12 and Big 10 care about the most.