a false equivalence.

Independence might have lead to a decline in the athletic program relative to utah and TCU, but going back to the MWC would only hasten that decline. You can't argue that we would be in a better position today if we had stayed in the MWC. Independence was our best option at the time.

Obviously the best case scenario would have been an invite to a P5 conference. But that's not the hand that we were dealt. Like Tom said at media day, our best option is to wait until the TV contacts are renegotiated and hope there's a seat at the table for us.

There would be zero benefit in going back to the MWC now. It would only push the program further into irrelevance and weaken our position when it came time to negotiate again. I'm not high on Independence either, but we have to make it work for the time being.