Outside of Utah, BYU is synonomous with the LDS Church. Families work very hard for their kids to get to BYU because it's usually the first chance the youth have to be in a large populations of members. It also affordable compared to the public universities in their own state.

You've made the mistake of not comprehending how much more important BYU is to members outside of Utah than a football team. Yes, actually members do flock to BYU's banner only BECAUSE it is the Church's school. Not any different than a catholic cheers for ND or BCU.

BYU is going to see a huge swelling is TV ratings because so many fans are going to be able to watch their school. Nation wide next year it will be huge because it has been so limited by the MWC.