GREAT for members not in Utah. (to follow up on Chicken/Pig's post).

i grew up in north-east mesa. one of the most highly concentrated LDS areas outside of Utah. my ward was 3 streets by 4 streets with 75%+ of the homes members. there were 4 stakes of youth in my HS. we had 22 priests in my ward. my high school was probably 1/3 to 1/2 LDS and about half of those kids went to BYU. seriously some people referred to us as "BYU HS". the problem is i grew up more into Mountain View and ASU football then BYU. when you can watch guys like joe germaine (tOSU QB who beat ASU in rose bowl), todd heap, john beck, etc, it's a pretty storied program. but i only remember watching TWO BYU games in my whole life before attending BYU. the first was the BYU @ ASU game. i wore a gold "mormons for devils" shirt and cheered for ASU. the second was the 2001 BYU/Utah game. i watched at my grandparents house. (they are huge ute fans...he played ball there in the late 50's when they were very good, holds records still). i was cheering for Utah out of pure loyalty to family as i was BYU. watching luke staley was unreal though...he caught my eye.

anyway...that is IT. most of my friends were the same. there is a strong loyalty among the LDS population in PHX (the 5th largest city in the country) to ASU. it's a great school. but i could have been a BYU fan, but never saw them and quite frankly didn't care. i didn't think of them as "my school". this move will help the new generation of kids like me start liking BYU instead of their local BCS team. i went to BYU the summer after HS graduation but then went on my mission in Sept of 2002 so i didn't attend a home BYU game until the 2005 season (bronco's first). i was converted then...the 2006 utah game was my official baptism.

i'm a recent convert but i didn't have to be. Indy will change this for many youth/people around the country just like me. when they see BYU come play at their local stadium and more importantly when they can see them play on ESPN in prime slots against good teams, they will convert many of the LDS population whose loyalties lie elsewhere.