BYU will continue to embrace life as a football independent as the college football world evolves into an age of the playoff and possible autonomy. As BYU kicked off the football media day circuit Monday morning, BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe and head coach Bronco Mendenhall addressed the seat BYU occupies.
“I like independence, Mendenhall said, despite previously suggesting BYU would embrace a chance to join the Big 12. “It’s a good place to launch from.”
“I like where we are,” Holmoe said of BYU, entering year four of football independence since leaving the Mountain West Conference. One of the benefits of being independent for BYU is being able to organize its own television deal. “We’ve nailed that. We’re on TV a lot.”
As far as Holmoe is concerned, BYU has everything they wanted and is in posiiton to get anything they will want as a football independent. The Cougars have done well with scheduling and getting the BYU brand out around the country, which is another benefit of being independent. Holmoe also hinted at some possible upcoming games that he hopes gets fans excited.
“There’s a couple games on the horizon we’re going to have some fun announcing,” Holmoe said. Recently the ACC and SEC decided BYU would not count toward the new non-conference scheduling requirements (each school must schedule one non-conference opponent from a power conference, or Notre Dame). Despite that troubling news, Holmoe says schools from those conferences are not reluctant to make a call to Provo.
“The reality is we’re continuing to schedule and to talk with schools from those conferences, Holmoe claimed. “We will continue to play teams from those conferences. They’re calling us to play those games.”