...appearances in 4 yrs and going to a lower tier bowl every year to going to a lower tier bowl once in 4 yrs and a losing record the rest of the time just so they could buy and wear Pac-12 gear, bumper stickers and banners/signs in their yards. That's quite a trade.

For BYU the trade off is we're making more money than we ever did or ever would in the MWC, being on TV more than we ever did or ever would in the MWC, and playing better schedules than we ever did or ever would in the MWC. By that measure football independence has been a large success. It's certainly not perfect and being in a p5 conference would be better but that's always been the stated goal and this gives us a better option in the interim.

Don't mistake how important exposure is and how much it hurt not having it in the MWC. The first go around of conference expansion BYU got passed over for a lot of reasons I'm sure. I'm sure one could be that p5 conferences maybe didn't see them as being worthy. That certainly was the case last year when most conferences pronounced they didn't consider BYU to be p5 caliber when it came to scheduling but two recently changed their minds including the premier football conference in the land (SEC).

So, the deal is mo money, mo exposure and mo better schedule vs much less money, no games on TV/national exposure and a sucky schedule guaranteed EVERY year?