I don't know why we'd ever want to admit defeat - to volunteer to sit at the kid's table permanently - to lock ourselves into a "have not" status. We have strengths as a program that no G5 can touch. By any measure, except for media money payouts, we are a mid-tier P5-like program (and even then, we make in one or two games what G5 conferences pay out over an entire year). The idea is to try to grow the program from this mid-tier level into something bigger/better. Of course it's difficult to do as an independent, but at least the opportunity/possibility of growth is there.

And almost every program goes through down years. BYU has been pretty unique in avoiding such calamities through the years. It's not the norm. Long-term planning for the program shouldn't be based on the outcome of a single season, or even a couple of seasons. All we have to do for independence to be seen as a success again is to get back to the point where we can win at least some of the games against the better opponents and get back to regularly beating the lesser teams. Basically, it's an 8 win-type season. Not great, but respectable. Get back to that point, and see if we can stretch upward from there. Get to that basic level, and there will be plenty of fans in the stands and plenty of folks tuning in on TV.