They did it. BYU did it - they left the Mountain West. The football Cougars will play as independents starting in 2011, while the rest of the BYU sports will play in the I-know-you've-never-heard-of-of-either West Coast Conference. I know they wanted to keep pace with in-state rival Utah who jumped to the PAC-10, but I think their best bet would have been to stay in the recently expanded MWC and hope for a solid 12th-team addition, setting up a championship game and probable BCS AQ status. Instead, they chanced the unknown and set of on their own, the Notre Dame of the West, an independent, religious, AAU-member, with good academics and a modern football record that's spotty at best. Good luck, guys.
So, what will happen now? I think the MWC should still go ahead and expand to 12. Add Houston or continue raiding the WAC, but either way, get a championship game. Then your champion can get an auto-bid...but the WAC will be screwed. Which is why they're stretching out desperately to get some FCS team to step up (like Montana) and waiting to see if Hawaii follows BYU into independence. Either way, that league is done as a serious league, even among mid-majors.
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