Well, BYU is finally Independent in football, and part of the West Church, or Coast, Conference in basketball. My thoughts are essentially as follows:
1) BYU had to make this move for financial reasons. The MWC was inhibiting BYU financially, or rather, the MWC schools were cashing checks supplied to them by BYU, Utah, and TCU. While the details aren't public about how much BYU's TV deal is actually worth, it is likely worth between $6-$8M (just for home football and basketball games). The entire MWC TV deal was worth $12M, split evenly across all the schools in the conference. With Utah leaving for the good life of a BCS conference school, financially, BYU had to go get what it could on the market or risk Utah becoming the next BYU (i.e. the school for the majority of Mormon athletes). The fact that BYU, at least, quadrupled what they received from the MWC TV deal should show the MWC how valuable BYU was. BYU will stand to make much more money in the short, and long-run.
2) BYU had to make this move for their fanbase. There are 6 million members of the LDS church in the USA. Figure that half are inactive and don't care about the church. Figure half that are active don't care for BYU. Every ward I've ever been in (except for the wards in Utah County) has had roughly similar numbers to that. So I would estimate that in the United States there are roughly 1.5 million LDS BYU fans, perhaps a bit fewer, but there are certainly some non-LDS BYU fans. So, taken together, there are at least 1.5 million BYU fans. How many of them had the option of seeing every single BYU football game? Probably not even close to half. How many of them saw even half of BYU's basketball games? That number dwindles dramatically. Now, anyone who purchases a mid-level (or even lower in some places) cable or satellite package will have access to every single BYU football and basketball game, plus whatever other BYU sports they want to watch as well. With BYUTV's online streaming capabilities, every football and basketball game will be accessible online, though it may come on delay by a day or two in some cases. BYU fans will have much more access to view games in the short, and long-run.
3) BYU had to make this move from a competitive standpoint. In the MWC, BYU had 2 high-profile non-conference games each year, maximum (and that often meant getting a good bowl opponent too, which was rare). They also got either TCU or Utah, or both, in conference. At most, 4 out of their 12 games in a season got any real national attention. Next season, BYU will play several big-name schools. While the bottom of the schedule is certainly easier (the bottom of the WAC is easier than the bottom of the MWC), the top of the 2011 schedule looks a lot better than the 2010 one. The 2010 schedule was actually quite good, but it doesn't have the name recognition that the 2011 schedule does. In basketball, I think the same will probably be true. The bottom of the WCC is easier than the bottom of the MWC, but the top of the WCC is harder, at least when looking at it in terms of NCAA Tournament success (obviously the rivalry factor made MWC games difficult, but Gonzaga and St. Mary's have more national clout than New Mexico and SDSU). In non-conference, BYU may have a good chance to schedule better opponents without the crummy TV deal BYU could offer for a trip to Provo. [BYU won 45% of MWC championships over the last 12 years in all sports, that is domination across the board. I doubt there is a Division I-A school in the country that has won that many conference titles.] I fully anticipate the overall level of competition to improve in both the short, and long-run.
BYU had to make the move. Perhaps if Utah had stayed it wouldn't have been necessary. BYU and Utah could have fetched the MWC more money. They could have given the MWC more exposure. Those two things, together, may have helped the MWC in increased competitiveness. But Utah left, and BYU had to as well. I do not believe that BYU will join the Big XII or the Big East. I believe that BYU is planning on Independence in football and the WCC in basketball for the long haul. Even if the move ends up being somewhat of a flop, BYU will still be better off in 5 years than they would have been in the MWC over those 5 years.
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