1 - Texas and Oklahoma are not scared of BYU and it isn't reasonable to expect us to compete at their level. BYU can be an upper half Big 12 program, but demographics, geography, and the honor code will prevent us from getting the athletes and the depth necessary to compete with those programs year in and year out. In no way are Texas and Oklahoma scared of BYU competitively. I do believe that we can be at the top of the second tier, right there with the TCU's and Baylor's (after those overachieving programs lose their elite HC's).

2- I hate that cultural and religious reason have kept us out, but I'm not willing to come right out and call it bigotry or discrimination or whatever. Sure, that attitude may be present in Berkeley and Palo Alto. You have to look at this from their perspective though. Would you want to work around Sunday play restrictions? Would you willingly associate yourself with an organization viewed by much of the world as a cult? And this is the big one, in 2016, would you add a school with legitimate academic freedom concerns owned by a church (from the world perspective) with a history of racism, sexism, and homophobic policy? I hate it why we got left out, but I understand it.

3- Forget about ever going back to the MWC. It's a terrible, horrible idea. It is a massive step backwards. IT would be a pay cut. It will only happen as a last resort. Independence is our future.