For those of you that didn't hear, the Pac 12 and Big Ten have hammered out a deal that I am a really big fan of: making Big Ten teams actually play somebody in the non-conference, and even occasionally playing a road game. Though it could have very negative consequences for BYU football. The deal would mean that each Pac 12 team would play one Big Ten team in the non-conference schedule, though when EXACTLY teams will start doing it is undecided, though it will be in place no later than 2017. Obviously, the first item that comes to the forefront for BYU fans is what this means for the Utah game. Utah already plays 9 conference games each year. This adds a 10th game that they MUST play, leaving them with just two other games on the schedule. The Utes always open with an FCS/I-AA school. So the Utes would have to commit that last game to BYU every year for the foreseeable future? I'm not sure that happens. Even if Utah drops the annual FCS opponent, I don't believe they keep the rivalry alive. They need some guaranteed wins (and while Ute fans will wittily point out that 54-10 means a guaranteed win, Bronco will continue to be about .500 against the Utes) on the schedule. Honestly, I don't think there is a better time to cut ties with the rivalry, as both teams are currently in great position to survive, and even thrive, without it.
Even above and beyond the rivalry game with Utah, this could hurt BYU in three ways. First, for BYU to maintain a competitive schedule, they will need 2-3 Pac 12 games each season. The other Pac 12 schools will run into the same problem that Utah has. They only have two non-conference games, their other 10 games are already against BCS conference opponents. They won't want to add a school like BYU. While Oregon State and Washington State aren't exactly juggernauts, a win over them provides a bigger boost than San Jose State and New Mexico State.
I think the second way it impacts BYU is the added pressure it puts on Notre Dame to join a conference. The Big Ten will have adopted a 9-game conference schedule by the time this gets underway. On an annual basis, Notre Dame gets at least five games against Pac 12 and Big Ten opponents. If they can't continue to schedule 5-6 games against those two conferences, the pressure only mounts for them to join a conference. Notre Dame was able to stay independent when others failed (see Florida State and Penn State) b/c of their TV deal with NBC, but with the monstrous deals these conferences are getting, the money has all but evened out. If Notre Dame does fold and join, there is no shortage of suitors. And if they join a conference, can BYU realistically stay Independent? [Their list of suitors isn't very attractive, since it's pretty much just the WAC.] BYU might also lose the ability to schedule Notre Dame as well.
Third, what happens if other conferences do the same thing? Say the ACC and SEC combine forces. The Big XII and Big East do so as well. Where is BYU going to get quality opponents? The answer is they aren't. BYU would probably never play a ranked team again. And even if they did, they'd never get that opponent at home. Now, I believe this could be the first step towards a super-division that I have long been a proponent of. Whether it does lead to that or not, I have no clue. But I do know that at some point the music is going to stop. And as a BYU fan, I hope the Cougars are not the only one left without a chair when it does.
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