independence.

The reality is, most of the CFB world, players included, place a great deal of stock in the race to win the conference title. It also makes individual games more meaningful in conference standings.

AND, even if you aren't getting into the CFP, if you are in a P5 conference, if you finish 2nd or 3rd in the conference, you still get into a pretty good higher profile bowl. Something outside of the Cotton Bowl BYU has never experienced. We've been going to 4th tier bowls our entire existence.

While independence may be our best holding pattern for now (and I think it probably is) as long as we are Indy, we will be in a spot most other schools wouldn't really enjoy and we are just a gun for hire that goes around playing in different places all the time with no real home. It's not the optimal solution, but it sort of works for now. That doesn't change the upside of being in conferences, even G5.