http://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=12817285
BYU not paying a stipend equal to the PAC12's will be incredibly detrimental to BYU recruiting considering our rival is now going to be paying power 5 money. I agree that BYU isn't going to keep up with the USC's of the world, but they better keep up with the average P5's of the world or they are going to be really desperate in terms of recruiting.
For recruiting purposes TH should have said we are going to do everything we can do to remain competitive with P5 conferences in terms of student athlete welfare.
BYU is BYU therefore they don't need to pay an equal stipend is complete non-sense. As if we didn't already hemorrhage enough elite LDS talent to the likes of the P12, and lately Utah. If anything BYU should use the coming living cost stipend and no conference affiliation as leverage and pay a larger stipend. I think BYU has this stubborn pride issue when dealing with people's opinions, rooted in the infallibility of the church attitude. BYU just couldn't be conciliatory, they have to make sure everyone knows that they do things their own way and that is how God wants it done.