Granted, we would rather be playing something akin to a full P5 schedule.

But we aren't all that far off, particularly when you take into account the degree of difficulty of Boise State and the fact that P5 schools often play rather soft non conference schedules.

We certainly don't seem to have lost by leaving the mountain west. We're still playing a lot of the same schools, but we get to pick and choose them while, for the most part, scheduling much better non-MWC schools for more $$$.

It was nice when we had a conference title to play for November – – I will concede that. Otherwise, BYU is basically laughing all the way to the bank compared to the MWC.

I'd like it if could move Utah State and Boise State to the end of the year to help solve the November blahs, but this year underscores how much better off we are compared to our MWC days, IMO.

If we win our games, we can pretty much award ourselves as the Mountain West champions without having to be in the conference.