I would love to be wrong about this Pudge. But I'm not a doom and gloom guy. As awful as the football was last year, I hadn't given up on, slowly but surely, Edsall building us back up to where we were.
But I just don't see how it's possible. I'm not sure it's going great for BYU, and they're light years ahead of us in being able to make it work. I know how it's going for UMass.
I would argue ...
We are damn closer comparable to BYU than UMASS. In spite of that ugly 1-11
And BYU probably is happy.
Dave Benedict? He went to school (and had a network) in Utah. He’s got to have had that conversation.
The truth is BYU - according to our friend Phil Steele - has the 40th toughest schedule in the country. BYU kicks off their 2019 football schedule in Provo against the Utah Utes. Other home opponents on the schedule for BYU in 2019 include USC, Washington, Boise State, Liberty, and Idaho State.
The Cougars will travel to face Tennessee, Toledo, USF, Utah State, UMass, and San Diego State in 2019.
They have relatively full schedules through 2022. 9 contracts on 2023. Then it falls off.
I think we can all say with certainty: if BYU is 8-4, they’re getting a damn good bowl - regardless of a AAC or MWC team the same.
They have a bunch of Liberty. And frequent in-state games with Utah & Utah State. Bet they play Weber State & Southern Utah too.
SEC? Lots of Pac12.
I think this is wishful thinking. They made a decision to sacrifice one program for the other. It's a decision that probably had to be made. No sense in being delusional about it.
We have had massive challenges before. I just don’t think you resign yourself to this being the death of Football. Particularly in a broad sense whereby lots of solid universities are investing and striving to be a player in CFB. I think we got off the P5 track. Sad. But ... look. We aren’t UMASS. Or Liberty. Or NM State. And then the other spectrum ... not BYU. We can’t pay big numbers to teams to visit. I think the answer are many.