scheduling issues they are experiencing now. Their decision to keep BYU out for many years prior to 2010, and their decision to bypass BYU for Utah/Colorado at the time seemed like a pretty shrewd move. They pass up a much stronger national and local brand in BYU, but elevate a weaker brand in Utah to P5 status, which, given the vast resource differential and P5 prestige, would have been anticipated to surpass BYU over time. It might have been expected that BYU would be weakened by having to now compete with a P5 next door.

The PAC12 wouldn't get the TV draw from BYU's national following, but since local TV market was the driving factor at the time, they figured that enough BYU fans would tune in to Utah games in the PAC12 that you can have the best of both worlds in their mind - get most of the TV market, without having to accept the religious school you can't bring yourselves to accept. Even better, if you schedule BYU OOC, then you still get the benefit of some of the TV value of BYU.

The plan seemed clever, but had one major flaw. What if BYU would get invited by another P5 conference and brought to a level playing field in resources? "Nah, that won't happen, who would accept such a discriminatory and non-academically free university to its conference? Even if it did happen, it would be the Big12 who is no threat to us as they are at risk of imploding." I'm sure this was the rationale.

Well, they were wrong about someone inviting BYU, and while the Big12 has seen some shakeup and weathered some storms, recent results are showing that the Big12 is not only surviving, it is thriving. Meanwhile, the PAC12's own deterioration on the field, in TV ratings, and in recruiting, is making things worse. It is suffering the pain of the shortsightedness of shunning a much better value school for a development project and its SLC market.

Now, BYU in the Big12 could end up creating a stronger BYU than if BYU were in the PAC12. In the Big12, BYU will be playing in 3 different time zones, or if you count OOC games in the Pacific time zone, then all 4 time zones. The reality is, and has practically always been, that Eastern exposure means higher TV ratings. Furthermore, Texas is the biggest/most valuable pool of college football talent in the country. A conference with a firm foothold in Texas (4 schools), not to mention 1 (2 in the future?) in Florida, is going to perform well on the field. And while TV ratings for the likes of Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, and Houston right now don't compare to the major P5's, performance on the field eventually equates to ratings. So the future is bright if you are fortunate enough to sit on valuable recruiting land.

In addition to the recruiting value of Texas, there is the value of schools that take football VERY seriously. Texas lives and breathes football, so the Big12 schools will not shy away from spending big on football. Can you say the same for the PAC12 institutions?

Meanwhile, Utah with 63 year old Kyle Whittingham's retirement on the horizon, is ironically vulnerable to the exact fate that the PAC12 hoped for BYU - that of being overshadowed by a bigger P5 brand in its home market - only BYU's brand is already ahead of Utah's even with the 10 year head start on P5 funding that Utah has had. What will it be with Big12 funding and exposure? If Utah and BYU football/sports were stocks, I know which one I would be buying.