Have you ever had occasion where you say somebody about to make a decision so bad that it will cause chaos in so many respects you just cringe thinking about it? A buddy of yours drinks too much and drunk-dials his ex, or doesn’t see the problem with lending money to a new girlfriend, or even worse, thinking that living with the significant other’s parents can work …all of them will end disastrously, and all of them are a better idea than going independent in college football.

Seriously, BYU, you couldn’t have this more backward. First of all, you are swimming upstream. The trend in college football is the “super-conference,” the twelve-plus member league that can host a revenue-generating championship game and can exert influence on regional television coverage, even to the point of establishing its own television network.

That actually brings up another very good point. While I understand BYU does have it’s own television network, let’s compare it realistically to the Big Ten Network. The Big Ten has all sports from eleven member schools with which to fill its programming schedule, and yet it still needs to resort to “campus programming.” In comparison, BYU.tv will have football…just BYU football. Right now, BYU.tv is a bunch of religious programming, which explains its 40 daily viewers. That means BYU’s model will have more in common with Notre Dame’s broadcast strategy.

Currently, Notre Dame contracts with NBC to broadcast its home games. But let’s be honest, that isn’t going to last as long as the Irish keep going 7-5 against Purdue, Stanford, and the Service Academies.  The advantage Notre Dame has is simple. They have money; enough so that they think they can survive the fact the only people who give a damn about Irish football are 60-year old guys who remember when it was still relevant.  BYU doesn’t have money, and only was relevant for a few years during the LaVell Edwards era, and there’s only a fraction of those 60-year old guys who remember or care about it.

BYU, take a hard look at what being an “independent” means; look at who is “independent” now…the aforementioned Notre Dame, Army,  and Navy. Look at the schedules they put together, look at the revenue those schedules can generate, and understand your schedule won’t generate anything near that.  So, before it is too late, BYU, you really need to review your decision to be independent.