Independence status of BYU and P5 conference affiliation of others.

 

If we take for granted that a non-P5 is going to lose recruiting battles to P5 schools just because of the greater status of a P5 school, then whether BYU is Independent or a G5 doesn't matter----it's simply not-P5.  But, since he included Independence as another factor, it implies that there is something incrementally bad about Independence status.  And the only thing that "badness" could be compared against is a G5 school.  In essence, he has set the pecking order up as P5 > G5 > Independence. If this statement is true, then it implies that BYU has also lost players to surrounding schools that are G5.  

 

This particular thinking has been stated many times on the board over the years (for example, that players prefer G5 to Independence because they get to play for a conference championship).  I have yet to find any examples of players that would rather play at a G5 than for BYU because of Independence, so I'm asking for an example to support the insinuation of the statement.