in the top 15 had last year gone forward as planned (with the exception of iowa state I suppose). Oklahoma State would be far and away the best football program in that conference, and they don't move the needle at all. You have to have a blue blood in your conference to make it work as a true power conference. Just one is enough, but you gotta have at least 1.

A really short sighted and ridiculous opinion by whoever wrote that article. If BYU loses even one game early last year (and we all know they would have lost at least one had their schedule been normal), they don't sniff the top 15.

Forget BYU for a minute, we all know they aren't a perennial football power, and are mediocre most years, and just good their best years (and virtually never great, not since the 90's anyways). Iowa State is no better than BYU in football, usually worse really, and the bearcats are in the same boat. Would they add eyeballs on TVs? Yeah (in BYU's case at least), but that isn't the point that the article tries to make. Until last year, BYU football had been difficult to watch. Bad offense, boring defense. BYU was fun to watch last year, but lets not pretend that has been the norm recently, and lets not get delusional and think joining the Big12 would automatically make them fun to watch every year. Most likely, they would struggle to keep up with other teams athletically, much like Utah did early in it's pac12 days (and still does to a much lesser extent). Watching them bend-but-don't-break their way to .500 big12 records in the good years would not be fun. Not for anyone who isn't more than a casual BYU fan anyway.