done me in. I'm just not that invested anymore. Doesn't matter what BYU does, I think it's impossible to get in.

I knew it would happen "IF" BYU didn't win, and win big. They didn't.

Honestly, with the deck stacked against BYU joining a P5 conference after the initial invites went out were verrrry slim....because of the religious nature of the university.

In my opinion, the ONLY chance BYU had to get into a P5 conference was to roll the dice, go Independent, schedule as many big name programs as they could, and win. "Winning" was the actual and only key to it all...and we didn't do it. We have had several chances to make a big impact/splash since going Independent...and we stumbled.

Had BYU remained relevant by winning most if not all of their match ups against P5 opponents, stayed in the Top 25 most of the time, and played in one or two New Years Bowl games with talk of busting into the playoffs...BYU would already be in somewhere and this discussion isn't even happening. We didn't win, win enough against the right opponents.

I'm afraid the time for joining is in the past. I don't see the P5 conferences doing anything significant for quite some time. Even if the BIG XII busts up...Texas and OK are in somewhere, and maybe one or two others...the rest...tough luck. TV revenue is down, TV contracts are down...people pulling the chord, etc. etc. I don't see conferences getting bigger.

Each year I say this...but, this year is even more critical than most others because BYU is against the ropes. We have shaky confidence in the coaching staff. New additions to the coaching staff. Losing has hurt our recruiting...so recruiting is down. Our home schedule sucks, worst season in a million years, road schedule is tough as nails...everything seems stacked against the Cougs. IF, BYU pulls another season like they did last year...it may enter a death spiral. Coaches will have to all be fired...BYU will have to take a new route, and what are we looking at...another 5+ years to even think about being good again. That will have made it almost a decade of crappy football by then.

This year better pull off some serious upsets on the road...or else BYU football the next two years after that...with those schedules, we could get obliterated.

Gotta gird up your loins this year Cougs. Methinks it's do or die time.