RealGM

For us RealGM junkies who just can't stay away whether there's a basketball season or not, at least we can talk SOME sports. No sport like THE college sport-FOOTBALL!

Should be a good year. Utes in the PAC, BYU is independent, and USU is on the up and up in the new WAC. It is almost August, and the season starts at the end of the month. Love me some football gossip before the actual season starts.

If the Cougs lose to the Utes, and they probably will, it's going to be a long long season for them.

If the Utes beat the Trojans, and they probably won't, it could be a magical season.

I have a feeling that this might be the last season that the Utah/BYU game has all that much importance.

The Utes won't go undefeated again, and the conference games are going to be against better competition than BYU can offer, and be far more important as far as bowl placement goes. My guess is Utah is going to start separating themselves as a far better football program pretty convincingly over the next few years until BYU can get an invite into a BCS conference.

There's a lot of variables. I think BYU will join a Football conference if they can't get their independent program moving. It won't be the MWC or the WAC, so even if the Big-12 doesn't call, they might just go to CUSA. The experiment will at least get the length of the ESPN contract though. If they can be a top 25 school once every 3 years it will be a success.

BYU QB going to explode this year into a superstar! BYU will have a better team than the Utes for the next 3 years, and the PAC-10 (soon to be the PAC-20) will add BYU, Nevada-Reno, Fresno State, and New Mexico in the years to come.

I wonder if I were to bet HolyToledo money on his prediction if the SEC would bust me for insider trading?

The University of Utah is getting alot of love in the Pac-12 South predictions. Some have them winning the division and and facing Oregon or Stanford for the Conference title....

I dont know enough about the current squad to make an educated guess...but a conference title birth seems optimistic at best to me. What I do know is Whittingham is tough, and he's a good leader. If the ball bounces the right way, I wouldn't put it past him to pull some major upsets in the Pac-12. That's my hope anyway!

GO UTES!

I have a hard time seeing the Utes win the South. I would be happy if it did happen though.

ASU is the only real challenge to the Utes with USC being uneligible. The south champion will be whomever has the best PAC-12 record in the south. With Utah not having to face Oregon or Stanford this year there is a good chance they will end up #1 or #2 with USC being #1. If that is the case the Utes will be representing the south.

Also HolyToledo...BYU will never be in the PAC. They would end up in the SEC before the PAC. Also another thing with your prediction, no conference will ever be bigger than 16 teams.

Never say never, but it's going to be more than a decade or two after this round of expansion. New TV contracts won't be negotiated on this level for 15 years.

HolyToledo wrote:BYU QB going to explode this year into a superstar! BYU will have a better team than the Utes for the next 3 years, and the PAC-10 (soon to be the PAC-20) will add BYU, Nevada-Reno, Fresno State, and New Mexico in the years to come.

Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3CwbOIDIjY

I'm a BYU alum and pretty excited to see how things go as an independent. My hope and expectation is that the team is better this year with what appears to be the staff on the same page and a clear QB as #1 going into the season. It is a bit weird having all the tough games coming early in the season and a pretty soft schedule late. I won't miss the MWC championship though. It seemed like it was always BYU, Utah, and TCU duking it out any given year and the rest were forgettable. Whoever won against the other 2 got head-to-head bragging rights AND the conference championship so for me it was somewhat hollow.

My dad is a Utah guy and because of where I live end up getting to go with him to at least 1 game per year. I don't see the Utah/BYU game being any less meaningful in the next couple years though the long term effects of not being in the same conference remain to be seen. I'm interested in watching how Utah will fare with PAC-12 games making up a bulk of the schedule.

Never been a fan of Utah State football and don't see that changing anytime soon. Nice to see their program winning some games though. As for the MWC, I won't miss most of these teams (especially SDSU and WYO though I did like watching TCU and Air Force). I'm sure they will move on and be fine but I expect that to be a race between TCU and BSU. I'll admit I'm slightly intrigued to see how BSU fares after stepping into the MWC vs. the WAC but only enough to check box scores.

As far as future expansion I could see BYU joining up with the BIG-12 (or some conference like that) at some point. I expect a short settling period but would not be surprised to see more conference shifting in the coming couple of years. I definitely don't see the PAC-12 being interested in BYU though as the criteria they are looking for isn't changing and the fit isn't there.

i grew up a byu fan, and am excited for their independence. but i have no personal ties to the team, or any team really. i can tell you that the moment byu joins a bcs conference is the moment i jump ship and start cheering for usu or bsu. utah and tcu have turned into giant hypocrites in my opinion, and i have a harder time rooting for either team than i did before and even than the typical hated bcs schools. to me, hatred for the bcs trumps my allegiance to any collegiate football team.

that being said, it will still be exciting to see byu actually play some real teams when they aren't playing schedule fillers. it will also be exciting to see all the money the university of utah will "earn" even when they have a mediocre season. (oh wait, can fans really be excited about that?!?) perhaps most intriguing though is usu's potential. the wac is virtually empty with unr, bsu, and fresno all gone. this is usu's conference to lose now.

Bat wrote:My guess is Utah is going to start separating themselves as a far better football program pretty convincingly over the next few years until BYU can get an invite into a BCS conference.

I'm a Utah alum and a perennial football season ticket holder and I don't really see the PAC-12 move significantly widening the gap between the Utah and BYU football programs*. While the additional money and prestige will certainly help Utah, I don't think it will turn them into Oregon or USC.

As for BYU, they've traditionally been able to compete with PAC-10 schools. I don't see why that should change with Utah as part of the PAC-12.

* But I hope I'm wrong

It will depend on byu's ability to schedule quality opponents year after year. The espn deal certainly helps them, but it will be hard to compete in recruiting with Utah once the realization sets in that you are likely going to play USC and Oregon 6-8 times in your career if you commit to the utes, not to mention other potential contenders like Stanford. The high exposure bowl games will also prove difficult for byu to compete against,

I don't think the gap will be insanely drastic, but I do believe that Utah being the superior program will become even more relevant than it is already.

Biggest news out of PAC-12 media day was Whittingham said they are learning the scheduling process where most conference teams schedule 1 big game and 2 easy wins for their non-conference schedule. This year they play 2 tough games (PIT and BYU). For 2012, BYU is the only big non-conference game (Utah State is also on the schedule). So the speculation is that Utah isn't going to want their 1 big non-conf game every year to be the same team (BYU). So we might see Utah leaving BYU off their schedule some years when they want to play another big game--not because BYU isn't good enough for them--but because they are too good to play all the time with their other scheduled games. Otherwise they are bucking the trend by being the only conference team to schedule 2 big non-conf games some years. I'd bet Utah State will likely stay on their schedule as one of the "easy" wins and maybe a 1-AA or bottom dwelling MWC or WAC team.

Bat wrote:My guess is Utah is going to start separating themselves as a far better football program pretty convincingly over the next few years until BYU can get an invite into a BCS conference.

Im pretty sure the two undefeated seasons in 4 years and BCS bowl wins to boot took care of that already....

Bat wrote:It will depend on byu's ability to schedule quality opponents year after year. The espn deal certainly helps them, but it will be hard to compete in recruiting with Utah once the realization sets in that you are likely going to play USC and Oregon 6-8 times in your career if you commit to the utes, not to mention other potential contenders like Stanford. The high exposure bowl games will also prove difficult for byu to compete against,

I don't think the gap will be insanely drastic, but I do believe that Utah being the superior program will become even more relevant than it is already.

BYU and Utah don't go after a lot of the same recruits. BYU hasn't had a difficult time scheduling good opponents so far. I would imagine that it will get easier for them once they become more familiar with how independence works. 1280 reported that a ton of teams were calling BYU offering them 2 for - 1's. I don't think that they will do many of those at all if any but if worse comes to worse they can. BYU will have plenty of exposure as long as they are decent. I believe they are scheduled to have 10 ESPN games this year with possibly an 11th (doesn't say anything about Oregon State). PLaying USC and Oregon that many times could be fun but like you said with BYU, Utah has to win.

I see the future 3 game out of conference going to be opening against a Big Sky or Sun Belt or Utah State then BYU then Utah State or a home and home with a big school. If they have a big school they will try and do Utah State as their opener, but not worry too hard if USU is left off for the year.