The commissioner can set the protocols, and everyone will have the same guidelines and structure. You’ll then have a plan you can give to each state, and make it more likely they’ll give the thumbs up to play. If you play non-conference, you open yourself up to trying to negotiate with parties that don’t have the same guidelines. You could be from Texas trying to negotiate with California to allow similar protocols. It sucks, but I can see why in a pandemic you want to adopt one model for governing all of your athletic events at every venue.

I think BYU will need to negotiate with a conference to be a +1 if they intend to play this year. I’m not sure how else it happens.