On a recent trip to Southern CA my son and I played catch with some neighbor kids (11 year olds). We got talking sports and they were pretty avid football fans for kids their age. We talked favorite NFL team and players then transitioned to college. I wasn't surprised to hear them name Oregon, USC, Alabama and even Fresno St. as their favorite teams, although I must admit shock when one said, "oh yeah and I LOVE Utah!" He then went on to name 3 or 4 players.

Of course I had to stop him and tell him that's not something I want to talk about as a BYU fan and they both said "what's BYU?" Once I told them about BYU they seemed as though they had heard of it, but familiarity was not there at all.

Contrast this with a fellow classmate of mine (age 32) who grew up in Philly. He told me he was aware of BYU as a kid because of football and knew it was a decent program.

I understand these are two isolated examples, but the point being that our awareness is in decline while utah's rises. 20 years ago kids on the east coast knew of BYU football, now kids in our own back yard don't know who we are. lack of awareness eventually leads to less recruits outside of utah, less national interest, etc, etc, etc. If we don't get a B12 invite BYU football will follow SMU into the college football graveyard.