or early 2005. Crowton has just delivered three straight losing seasons. On top of that you have tons of honor code issues and players in legal trouble. You aren't competitive in the MWC, and are struggling to reach .500 on the season.

Is the right answer for BYU to drop down to FCS level football?

Obviously the answer is no. Instead you go hire a coach who can fix the off-the-field problems while turning the program around on the field.

If that's the right answer in 2004, then why is it so many fans think the answer in 2019 is drop down to a much lower level of competition and go live in the MWC or AAC? I can guarantee you that would take our lousy recruiting from recent years and make it even worse. It's basically the wave the white flag solution to your problems. No high school athlete who is ambitious and wants the very best for his future is going to choose a school who publicly gives up and says we're going to settle for mediocrity. At least with independence we can claim we're going out and challenging ourselves against the very best. That's an attractive selling point to HS athletes who have other options.

Waving the white flag guarantees BYU football will never be better than mediocre.