Independence Day

As most anyone with connections to BYU will know, BYU's football team is going independent in Division I-A football, with many other sports affiliating with the West Coast Conference. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited about BYU football going independent and playing various opponents from all across the country. I'm also pretty stoked that BYU is coming to Corvallis in the fall to play Oregon State at Reser Stadium. I bought two tickets in the visitors' section of that game and I will be wearing virtually all blue with absolutely zero orange. I'm also contemplating making a sign that says, "OSU Grad Student" and below that, "(Guess where I did my undergrad)" with an arrow pointing down toward me. It would be legit. Anywho, there are some other things that I will enjoy about BYU going independent in football:

• Dusting my feet off on "The Mtn." TV network. Bad cameras, camera angles, and cameramen, are compounded by the terrible commentary.
• Getting rid of Mountain West officials. Through the years watching BYU and Mountain West football, I've seen terrible call after terrible call. As we liked to chant at LaVell Edwards Stadium, "I'm blind! I'm deaf! I'm a Mountain West ref!"
• BYU on ESPN. My Alma Mater has seven games on the ESPN networks for the upcoming season, most likely with more to come. People all over the country and the world will get to see Jake Heaps and the BYU offense steamroll "power conference" opponents.
• Referring to the Pac-12 as SpUtah's pimp. "It's unfortunate that SpUtah couldn't get permission from its pimp to have the Holy War game at the end of the season."
• Something that resembles a student section at LES. While I was at BYU, the athletic department always scattered the students about in order to optimize revenue. With BYU on ESPN, this is not an option and there will actually be a student section. [Scratch that, bad info]
  
• Leverage and options for conference bids. With conferences courting schools all over the place, BYU will have the power to negotiate with big six conferences like the Pac-12 and the Big XII if they would even want to entertain such offers.
• Independence. As with most other forms of independence, being independent in football will allow BYU to do whatever they want with their money and efforts without a conference commissioner lording over them.

This year, Independence Day comes a few days early, on July 1st. I will be sporting my various BYU gear in celebration and it will be a day of rejoicing in Provo and the BYU faithful all around the world.

Go Cougars!