College football dramatically changed after BYU won the national championship. Many even say that BYU's NC was the catalyst for that change. We saw the advent of the CFA, then the bowl alliance, then the BCS and now the playoff model. The one consistency since 1984 is that college football has increasingly been a game of haves and have nots and the deck has been stacked in terms of bowls, TV exposure, etc.

Utah finally broke out of the have-not trap and joined the haves. BYU, because of its unique nature as an LDS church school, has yet to join the haves, in spite of measuring up to the haves by any objective criteria. That said, independence has allowed BYU to make a significant move away from the have nots into a type of tweener status. We have far greater exposure and money than the have nots, but perhaps even worse bowl opportunities.

Bronco and Tom have been at the helm throughout this breakaway. It's been full of new challenges and tremendous pressure. Add to that the recent re-tooling of the missionary age and the raising of the bar by the BOT in terms of HC compliance and image, and you have to give some credit to Bronco for the winning % he has.

Bronco is just now beginning to reap the recruiting rewards of going independent and being on national TV nearly every week. As some have pointed out now, Bronco is actually performing on par or better than Lavell in that post 1984 era. His team has suffered a freakish number of injuries to key players this season. We're 4-3. With all that's happened, we still have a shot at a 10-win season. Let's at least let things play out this season before lynching the 2nd best football coach BYU has had in its history.