Hard as it is to believe but this is now going on Year 8 for BYU as a football independent and while the program is coming off perhaps its most challenging season on the field in the at time, there’s still plenty of folks around Provo who are happy with the current arrangement sans a conference affiliation. That does not mean there’s some anxiousness about the future however and there’s always been plenty of talk both locally and nationally about the Cougars eventually joining a conference down the road.
Though there was a flirtation back in 2016 with the Big 12, that league ultimately decided not to expand and that kept BYU going with the status quo for the time being. It sounds as though that will be the case for at least the next four or five years, as athletic director Tom Holmoe told KUTV that he doesn’t foresee realignment involving the school happening again until at least 2023 and only after then could the program consider a move to a league even if it’s not of the Power Five variety.
“When they say 2023, it’s a little bit before and a little bit after when those big conferences renew or redo their broadcast rights agreement. After that time, if there is a change for BYU, then he would have to think about it and what the future would hold for sure,” said Holmoe. “We’re paying attention to see how those things go but you’re not going to see any movement for the next couple of years.”
Holmoe went into a number of topics during that interview with KUTV but one of the more interesting things he said that was not related to realignment came on the topic of the Cougars’ 2018 season. While he didn’t specifically set a number of games for head coach Kalani Sitake to win, it’s pretty clear he wants some progress on the field and for the team itself to be much more competitive -- even in losses.
Certainly as their rivals up the highway in Salt Lake City can attest, having a good team that wins ball games tends to come in handy whenever there’s another round of realignment.