I'd like our chances against any of the PAC12 south teams right now. I'd like our chances next year with Taysom, and our prospects going forward with Mangum, too. BYU is poised to be good on both sides of the ball for quite some time.

I believe BYU would immediately become much stronger with membership in the PAC 12. Every year BYU loses a number of blue chip LDS recruits to PAC12 (and other power conference) schools...guys like Haloti Ngata, Stanley Havili, Deuce Lutui, Manti Teo, Ricky Heimuli, Xavier Sua-Filo, Damien Mamma...the list is very, very long. I believe we would land a significantly higher percentage of these guys with membership in a power conference. These players would have a tremendous impact on BYU's football program. I think our non-LDS, skill position recruiting would get better overnight as well.

I stand behind my comments regarding Utah and Utah recruiting. They got a bump when they joined the PAC, and they continue to land a couple guys every year that they wouldn't have gotten without membership in a power conference, but, they're still largely fighting for and landing the same types of athletes they have always landed. They aren't recruiting against the likes of Oregon, USC, Stanford, UCLA, or even Washington and Arizona State with any regularity. Utah goes head to head with the better non-AQ/G5 schools (re: San Diego Sate, Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State) and lower tier P5 (Washington State, Colorado, etc.) schools for recruits. At the end of the day, there is nothing special about the U. There is nothing about the U that would convince a potential recruit to come play on the hill instead of at Oregon, USC, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, or even Arizona State and Oregon State. Utah will never consistently vie for the same athletes as the premier P5 schools. As such, I believe they will remain a bottom of the PAC 12 south program indefinitely.

Conversely, I believe BYU would land an increased number of truly elite prospects because of its affiliation with the LDS church, and the number of elite LDS prospects being produced in Utah, California and Texas. Again, I think BYU would stand to gain much more from inclusion in a power conference than Utah has.