Hoops, volleyball, women’s soccer, etc. are very small rosters compared to football. BYU can fill up a 13 man roster with D-1 caliber athletes by recruiting mostly LDS kids who would naturally have a high level of interest in playing here. It’s much more difficult for BYU to fill up an 85 man roster with high quality players, though. There just aren’t that many upper D-1 quality LDS football players out there.

I think BYU football would be much better if it could secure the lion’s share of blue chip LDS recruits, but it will always struggle to recruit the types of athletes required to win at the highest levels of college football, in the numbers required to do so.

This is why the ceiling is higher for BYU hoops, Volleyball, track and field, and cross country than it is for football. We can recruit the types and numbers of athletes we need to be competitive in those sports.