BYU to the PAC 10

Well religious persecution will never end :) Just kidding (kind of)... most PAC 10 articles about the pending PAC 10 expansion have said that BYU is not an option... They say that it is because BYU isn't a "research" school. That's a big bunch of hoey! What they mean is BYU won't play on Sunday and the ever expanding Sunday basketball schedule is the problem. I think that a review of history will help us understand what is happening now. This is a lesson in what is reported and what is reality and how they are often different.

Roger Reid was a good basketball coach at BYU as an assistant and head coach for a long time. In fact he won a lot. He recruited well and was overall pretty good (not great). Then BYU took a hit on recruiting and Roger got frustrated about it. He was under pressure to beat Utah and others in conference. Also BYU started to lose . So some LDS recruits went to other places like Utah or Stanford, or someplace closer to their home. Along came a big recruit named Chris. He was a McDonalds All American he was LDS and good, very good. He was choosing between Utah and Duke with BYU as a thought. Roger made a mistake and asked Chris to commit. When Chris said no, he said "10 million Mormons would be disappointed". Chris then committed to Duke and ESPN and everyone else ran with the "Disappointed Mormons" quote. BYU went 1-25 the next season and Roger got fired. Roger made a big stink about it. The papers said that Roger was fired because of losing and low attendance and "time for a change". BUT that wasn't it! It was because he made the LDS church look bad. The only reason there is BYU sports is for the missionary efforts of the church. So if a coach, player or fan makes the church look bad then it should be shot down... (not my point). My point is what was reported wasn't reality.

They are now saying that BYU can't join the PAC10 because it's not a research institution. What a joke. ASU is? UA is? ok Cal-Berkley, Stanford and USC I will give you, but most of the state schools are equal or below BYU. Another thing I heard was that BYU didn't have a medical school... Neither does ASU sheesh! does USC? BYU doesn't need one because 50 miles awayat UTAH there is one of the best and could the community support both? BYU's Law school is the best in the whole MTN area. Why don't the just say it: "BYU won't play on Sunday and if they are good in basketball one year (like top 10 or something) we won't be able to case in on it!" Crazy.. well I finally found one guy who almost said it (link at bottom). At least he is saying that it should be BYU and UTAH and not COLORADO (1000 miles from LA -dumb). Here's the reaility if BYU had made a BSC bowl like Utah (big if I know) this wouldn't even be a discussion. BYU has won more games in the last 5 years, been higher average ranked in that last 5 years then any team in the entire west except USC... so UTAH made 2 BCS bowls in the last 6 years... but BYU has more wins and high average ranking at the end of the season... Utah should be taken, but both on the field and off of it BYU is better! In all 29 sports that the Mountain West awards conference champions in BYU won or shared 23 in the 2008-2009 school year. In non-revenue sports they lead at least 8 PAC10 teams in a lot of them (XC, Track (mens), Gymnastics, men's volleyball (2 national championships), and others. It's silly to think that it's because of academics BYU can't join. Just go apply to BYU and ASU/UA and see which one accepts you... Utah should be in... But history tells us that BYU should be in too, but are fighting against more then the normal parameters...

Link:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/09/SPTB1BUVCC.DTL