BYU Football: MWC Fans and Media Blasting Cougars Are Missing the Mark

Ever since the news broke that Brigham Young University was considering announcing its independence in football, fans, media and administrators of the remaining MWC schools have been piling on BYU, calling them "selfish," "arrogant," "underhanded" and--most laughable--"un-christian."

All for doing what's best for itself.

The root of this hostility is pretty easy to find, once you look under the covers of the Mountain West Conference and its teams and history.

You have to feel a little bad for them. They're jealous...and scared.

Underhanded? You should pay closer attention.

I don't get too worked up about media members calling BYU underhanded in this whole independence deal. It just exposes their ignorance in the matter.

BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe has mentioned numerous times this summer that BYU was exploring options to improve exposure and revenues, and one of the options they were investigating was independence.

Beyond that, David Locke, a popular radio personality in Utah has been advocating this for years. He even interviewed Karl Benson in 2008 and asked him if the WAC would take BYU in all other sports (the answer was a resounding "yes," by the way).

So this independence thing has been on the radar for a long while. Any reporter or fan claiming this was "underhanded" just plain wasn't paying attention.

Selfish? It's about time!

BYU brings the lion's share of value to the MWC in terms of TV revenue. Disagree? Look at the numbers ESPN is willing to pay BYU as an independent for football games only, then look what the MWC teams currently get. Whether fans in Albuquerque, San Diego, or worse, Laramie want to admit it, BYU has been bringing home the bacon for them.

In the new MWC without Utah, BYU would literally be subsidizing the remaining schools' athletic programs--only to watch some of them lose money each year.

Imagine you manage a sales department (yes, Wyoming, you can pretend you sell trucks). Your employees are paid out of the money you bring in. You have some reps that bring in a lot of money, others only a little, and others almost none at all.

But now let's say you pay them all evenly, regardless of the value they bring to your sales department. What's going to happen?

Your top performers, those that bring in all the value, are going to quit and move on. And you wouldn't fault them. And you would never set it up that way in the first place.

But that's how the Mountain West Conference (and many other conferences) operates. So BYU--the top salesman--left.

Texas argued with the Big-12 (and won) that this model doesn't work for them, so this isn't just a BYU issue. It may indicate a major shift in the way conferences divide the TV booty.

Arrogant? Maybe.

I get this argument. The MWC have-nots have their feelings hurt. It's a perfectly normal reaction to lash out against the offender and call him a jerk.

And the rest of the conference is scared. While fans and media may be ignorant, they aren't stupid. They know where their bread is buttered, and (at risk of mixing metaphors) the hand that feeds them has indicated it only wants to feed itself now.

When ESPN is inviting you to the table, it's not arrogance. It's just good business. Just like the top salesman above who leaves, BYU is simply looking out for its best interest. You'd do the same.

Unchristian?

In the words of the immortal Homer Simpson: "I'm not going to dignify that with an answer."

You can follow Ryan at twitter.com/ryanteeples