Advantages of the Big 12

BYU's athletic director Tom Holmoe has stated frequently over the independent era that the end goal is exposure and P5 access. Well, that time has come for both with acceptance into the Big 12 yesterday. One could certainly ask what are some of the advantages of having secured P5 access in the Big 12.

Something to play for. Student athletes regardless of school affiliation if they lose to their rival may seem defeated with nothing else left to play for the rest of the season. Now, every game matters with a conference title in mind. Even having a much better bowl matchup at the end of a regular season can matter rather than having to settle for some Smak Ramen Noodles bowl matchup.

No front loaded heavy strength of schedules anymore. Due to most conferences playing more of their conference schedule later in the year meant playing most of the big time opponents all at the first part of the season. Often, playing such a difficult front loaded schedule often meant the potential of accruing more injuries and in some cases knocking that student athlete out for the year due to the nature of the injury.

Less late night games. Yes, BYU was a ESPN tv darling. However, the reality is on only a couple of ESPN channels one can only have so many games and in what order. The nature was that BYU wasn't at the top of the pecking order vs having games that may have included teams as Oregon, Clemson, Florida State, etc. Thus, BYU often still would be on the ESPN schedule but stuck with the late night games and sometimes not the greatest announcing crew.

Access to P5 status with legit bowl games. This one is a rather obvious and easy choice. Nothing against the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl but if given the choice of a SmackRoman Noodle Bowl matchup or bowls such as Liberty Bowl, Texas Bowl or even the Sugar Bowl that is not a tough decision whatsoever.

Stuck with the other conference officials. Let's face it, some conference officiating crews aren't that great. Often, we had to schedule many Pac12 teams and their crews weren't that wonderful. 

Improvement in the recruiting landscape. Being able to cast a much wider net. Often the top athletes that BYU would lose out to other schools who had P5 status like athletes such as: Simi Fehoko (Stanford), Xavier SuaFilo (UCLA), Siaki Ika (LSU), Manti Teo (Notre Dame), Noah Sewell (OR), Kingsley Suamataia (OR), etc. One can't blame them due to a conference affiliation. The state of Utah has been a great producer of football talent and now those student athletes can finally stay home.

Increased revenue. This is certainly a no brainer which can kick into other things such as better facilities, higher pay to retain assistants, etc, Fans can now also have the draw of bringing in better quality teams on a more regular basis for better strength of scheduling.