importance at all, but it was in fact very important.
Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who knows someone very close to Tom Holmoe in the athletic department. He said that almost all of BYU's games this season will be refereed by Big 12 crews. This is part of the Big 12 application process as the conference wants to see how our players, coaches, and ultimately our fans react to their refereeing style. Apparently the Big 12 is on notice with how many Pac 12 teams we are playing this year, and they want to try to work something out in terms of making room for BYU to become at least a football only member. There is a general agreement in the P5 community that the Big 12 fears the Pac 12 may be close to expanding and inviting BYU, so they are trying to act before it is too late.
So Rise and Shout Cougar fans, just not at the referees. Big things are coming!