Interim Big East Commissioner Joe Bailey had this to say on access to the playoffs:

"As far as access is concerned, there was an enormous emphasis placed on champions for conferences and the reason for that is you play all year long to see if you can win your conference. The amount of work you put in in order to win your conference is significant and that should be recognized."

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2012/06/27/bmurphy/big_east_interim_commish_wont_speculate_boise_states_decision#storylink=cpy

I think BYU is going to need to be in a conference.