BYU Leaves the Mountain West Conference: Start of a Trend?

BYU has announced that it will leave the Mountain West Conference after this season, becoming an independent in football, and joining the West Coast Conference in every other sport.

This looks to be a great move for the BYU football team in their quest to become the "Notre Dame of the West."

Notre Dame has decided to help BYU out by agreeing to meet on the football field six times over the next decade.

The Cougars have also reached an agreement with ESPN to televise their games through the 2018 season. This is yet another move to try and compete with Notre Dame and their contract agreement with NBC.

The Mountain West can't be happy that they will lose one of their top schools next season, especially as Boise State gets ready to enter the conference.

BYU is clearly looking out for themselves with the move, and no one can blame them for that. The athletic department stands to make a greatly increased amount of revenue from their television agreement.

The increased publicity the team will receive by playing every game on national television is another huge coup for the program as they move forward. BYU football has known great success in the past, but they can enter another level of success as an independent.

BYU is trying to return to some of their WAC ties for next season by playing Hawaii and traditional rival Utah State. 

The Cougars newfound exposure should benefit their recruiting and will give the Mormon school's many fans around the country an opportunity to see their football team play.

With Utah moving to the Pac-10, BYU had extra motivation to go independent in an effort to remain top dog within the state. The agreement with ESPN has made that more than possible, and it has also raised the Cougars' hopes to reach the BCS Championship game in the near future.

The television agreement and independence have also made it easier for the Cougars to schedule top opponents each season. BYU can now play teams like Texas with the help of the worldwide leader in sports, who will want the Cougars to play against the country's best teams.

BYU and their fans have to be extremely pleased with the direction the football program and athletic department is heading now that the move has become official.

It will be interesting to see if other teams try to follow suit now that the Cougars have made the move.

There are a lot of teams that would benefit from the increased exposure, but are there any other schools with the capability to make the move?

That remains to be seen, and definitely bears watching in the future.