If you're interested, this is a continuation of this post from yesterday: http://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=6366959

Through research and sources, I've compiled a pretty hefty collection of history regarding BYU and college football conference alignments. This is not an academic paper, and I'm not going to bother citing specific sources. Take it for what it is: A really long post on a message board. I hope you find it as interesting (and eye-opening) as I have.

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In Part 2,  as BYU chases a national championship, a court ruling forever changes the NCAA. Within a few years, this sets off a chain reaction of alignment and bowl agreements that completely overhaul the face of college football for better or worse. BYU and Utah both come up again in Pac-10 expansion talks, and BYU becomes a Big 12 candidate.

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It took 30 years to build the case and three years to wade through the court system.  On June 27, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its ruling on NCAA v. Board of Regents.

The court declared that college football television rights were no longer the business of the NCAA.  All broadcast rights now belonged to individual institutions.

It had all started in 1951 when Pennsylvania and Notre Dame attempted to negotiate exclusive TV contracts.  The NCAA stepped in and squashed the deals, asserting unilateral control.  It claimed that television deals had to be carefully regulated to prevent negative impacts on attendance.  The next year, rights to a limited number of games were sold exclusively to NBC in a 10-year deal that was worth about $9 million in today's currency.  This move was not popular.  Threats of anti-trust lawsuits were thrown about early and often.  The NCAA relented on a few points and lifted some restrictions on certain sold-out games, mostly to pacify the masses.

But, the inevitable finally happened in 1981.  The University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia teamed up and filed suit.  The case weaved its way all the way to Washington where the bomb was dropped.  Some thought the NCAA would quickly crumble after the ruling.  That didn't happen.  But, today, we recognize June 27, 1984 as the day college football became a big business, and the day the NCAA lost control of its own sport.

BYU was one of the first to benefit from the decision.  On September 1, it beat Pitt on ESPN's inaugural live college football broadcast.  The Cougars carried the momentum all the way to an unprecedented national championship four months later.  Ironically, there was fear and uncertainty all across the country that summer.  Like a dog chasing a 4x4, nobody was exactly sure what to do with this massive thing they now had in their jaws.

Michigan AD Don Canham called it, "The worst possible decision we could have gotten."  Penn State AD Jim Tarman added, "The worst scenario is that everybody is on their own."

The fears were legitimate.  Would the glut of potential product drive rights prices down and end up destroying profitability?  Weekday TV games were already being discussed.  What would the consequences of that be?

And, there were the jealousies - as Milwaukee commentator Steve Aschburner said: "The smaller schools are afraid of being forgotten by the bigger schools.  The bigger schools are afraid of losing ground to the biggest schools.  The biggest schools are afraid of each other... And everybody's afraid of Notre Dame."

With the NCAA out of the picture, the College Football Association - a loose alliance between almost every major college football entity except the Big 10 and Pac-10, became a haven in the chaos.

Miami AD Sam Jankovich quickly called for unity and new TV policies through the CFA.  "If that does not happen this decision could have a tremendous negative effect.  Not just on college football, but on all of collegiate athletics," he said.

Jankovich and his party got its wish.  The CFA started handling TV contracts for its members from 1984 on.  The Rose Bowl conferences made their own deals, and everything settled for a few years.

Then, in early 1990, Notre Dame finally did it.

In retrospect, you have to wonder why it didn't do it earlier.  Maybe it was paralyzed by uncertainty.  Perhaps it didn't immediately have the desire or vision to crank up a massive cash cow.  Either way, after a few years of toeing the CFA line, it dramatically broke ranks.

On February 5 of that year, the Fighting Irish signed an exclusive five-year, $38 million (closer to $62 million today) deal for exclusive coverage on NBC.  A month earlier, the CFA had brokered a new deal with ABC worth $210 million for all 64 of its schools.  After Notre Dame's announcement, ABC immediately slashed the payout by about $25 million.  The bar had been set in South Bend.  It was up to the rest of the would-be powers to try and compete, and the race was on.

The first effect was the rapid end of major independents. 

"Notre Dame was absolutely the only school that could have done this," said NBC vice president Ken Schanzer.  He was right.  Nobody else could compete with that kind of money on its own.  Schools had to start teaming up. 

In a flash, conference realignment engulfed the country, and groups started dropping out of the CFA.  In the next 12 months, Penn State joined the Big 10, Florida State jumped on board with the ACC, and the Big East added Miami, West Virginia, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and Temple.  Somewhere in the mess, the WAC added Fresno State.

But, the SEC outdid them all.  On August 2, 1990, it stole Arkansas away from the Southwest Conference. 

The proud SWC - a Texas football fan's dream come true - was fatally wounded by corruption and the NFL.  Once-powerful schools in Dallas and Houston couldn't compete for attention with the Cowboys and Oilers.  And, beginning with SMU, the magnitude of recruiting violations forever tarnished its reputation.  Texas blue chippers like Ty Detmer started going elsewhere.

In late September, South Carolina joined the Razorbacks and the Southeastern Conference became the first 12-team league.  Commissioner Roy Kramer formed divisions and set up the first conference championship game.  It took place in Birmingham in 1992.  The TV rights were sold to ABC and the 9.8 viewer rating was astounding.  The super conference era had arrived.

Together with Notre Dame, the SWC, ACC, Big Eight and Big East, Kramer also had his hand in the formation of the Bowl Coalition.  This mainly involved the Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta, and Orange bowls.  Payouts went up, and there was a better chance of a rare No. 1 vs. No. 2 game.  The Rose Bowl was still married to its exclusive ABC deal and prestigious Big 10/Pac-10 matchup. 

But, what about the Pac-10?  While everyone else was scrambling to increase its footprint, things were relatively quiet along the west coast - at least publicly.  Privately, the Pac-10 was plotting all along.  San Diego State and Fresno State made geographic sense, but nobody needed more California schools.  Colorado was an intriguing option, but not unanimously popular.  And then, there was BYU.

BYU was initially put on the short list.  Beginning around 1991, there were informal conversations between Provo and some Pac-10 forces.  But, the conference was too divided to move forward.  The Arizona schools didn't have a problem.  They had been in a conference with BYU before.  USC was alright with the idea, and UCLA could be persuaded.  But, Stanford and Cal simply couldn't warm up to it.  Academic elitism reigned in the northwest, as well.

Believe it or not, there was a gentlemen's agreement between the Utes and Cougars to try and stick together.  BYU made it clear that it wanted Utah as its partner if expansion possibilities ever progressed.  The Pac-10 did talk about BYU and Utah as a pair.  But, there were too many obstacles.  Many believe that if Utah's growth as a football power had come about 10 years earlier, the Pac-10 could have been persuaded to pull the trigger.  The pressure to keep up with the whirlwind around them might have been strong enough to override the long-standing hesitations if it was the BYU/Utah tandem of the 2000s. 

But, it was 90s.  The conference finally concluded that BYU and Utah wouldn't work together, and BYU was too much trouble on its own.  All the informal talk ended with the Pac-10 punting.  It would wait for better options.  Privately, BYU officials suspected they would never be discussed by the Pac-10 again.  With time to explore more options, it seemed very unlikely that the Pac-10 would want to bother.  No one in Provo remembers any formal or informal expansion talks ever taking place with the Pac-10 after about 1992.  Quietly, the coastal schools set aside Utah for consideration in the future. 

In 1994 the SWC finally blew up. 

Some kind of partnership between the SWC and Big Eight had always been discussed.  As time went on and the Dallas and Houston schools slipped further off the radar, the Lone Star ground got shakier.  Beginning in 1993, whispers started to leak out that Texas and Texas A&M were looking at other options.  Today we know that several possibilities were considered.

The SEC, Big 10, and Pac-10 were all discussed.  The Pac-10 seemed like the most attractive destination.  One source told the Sporting News that the Texas schools would have had a formal invitation from the west coast, "in two hours, in 20 minutes, as fast as a fax machine works." 

But, the Longhorns and Aggies knew it wouldn't be that simple.  Politics weren't going to let the Texas dream conference break up so easily.  They eventually looked to the Big Eight, because they knew what would happen as soon as a deal got close.

BYU was very much in the picture.  Vice president R.J. Snow and the interim athletic administration were heavily involved in talks (Rondo Fehlberg didn't arrive until 1995).  The scenario was basically set.  The Big Eight would be effectively dissolved.  Texas and Texas A&M would merge with its former members.  If it could be managed, BYU would be invited as team 11 or 12. 

But, everyone knew it all depended on the Texas politicians.  And, the closer UT and TAMU got to closing the deal, the more apparent it became that BYU wasn't going to make it in.  No one was really to blame.  Baylor and Texas Tech did what any school would do in their situations, and UT and A&M really had no choice.  The politics were too powerful.  At the end of the day, BYU was close, but probably not as close as the mythical stories say. 

It all went according to script.  UT and A&M started to formalize negotiations to leave the SWC.  When the other schools got wind of it, the flurry of private meetings, urgent phone calls, and back-room dealings went haywire.  Baylor and Texas Tech forced their way in.  SMU, TCU, Rice, and Houston were left behind.

On February 25, 1994, the Big 12 conference was officially announced.

For a brief time after the invites, there were whispers that the Big 12 might become the Big 14.  For a week or so in late February, the phone in the Smith Field House offices was ringing off the hook with reporters wanting a scoop.  Rex E. Lee's picture ended up in USA Today next to an article about realignment.  But, the Big 12 decided it was content and never pursued further expansion.  Aside from BYU, there weren't any attractive options.

The Cougars recommitted themselves to the status quo.  Less than two months later, three of the four SWC refugees (Houston stubbornly held on to delusions of an SEC invite), UNLV, San Jose State, and Tulsa accepted invitations to join the WAC.  Born under the craze of conference championship games and consolidated TV contracts, the Super WAC experiment was optimistically launched.

Before 1994 was done, the Pac-10 suddenly made a formal invitation to Colorado.  Word hit the news just a few days before Christmas.  It was one final twist in the chaos.  Colorado needed only 48 hours to turn the invitation down.  The timing didn't seem right to the Buffalos, since the Big 12 they had helped to create was due to begin play in just 18 months.

"Last year (1993)...if we had received a formal invitation we might have accepted it," said CU regent Peter Dietze. 

By all accounts, the Pac-10 had no 12th team in mind.  It would have held steady at 11 like the Big 10.  Of course, the Big 12 would have gone looking for a replacement had Colorado accepted.  Everyone knew who the likely candidate was.  BYU fans were once again left to wonder what might have been if the cards had fallen a little differently.

Finally, the smoke cleared as 1995 got underway.  Thanks to the Supreme Court decision and Notre Dame's imminent reaction, college football had completely changed in just a decade.  The era of major independent schools was done.  Conferences were becoming massive forces in TV negotiations, and bowl agreements had completely overhauled the post season, leaving games like the Cotton Bowl increasingly irrelevant.

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen ended the upheaval with one prophetic quote:  "It's quite likely that at some point in the future, and I don't know how far, there will be more realignments and more reconfigurations.  We have become convinced major conferences are going to get bigger."

The Bowl Coalition morphed into the similar Bowl Alliance in 1996.  In 1997 the CFA folded, and relative calm settled over college football for a few more years.

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Coming in Part 3...

The "Super WAC" rises and falls.  The BCS becomes the de facto force in college football while the ACC and Big East go to war.  The MWC begins a political fight against the BCS, and the infamous story behind The mtn. is discussed.