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SALT LAKE CITY — BYU athletics is known for a lot of things: A rich tradition of winning on the football field; a string of pro-level quarterbacks leading the university; 11 NCAA Tournament appearances since 2001; and championship-level competitiveness in nonrevenue sports.
For the wellbeing of BYU’s athletic future, though, are the Cougars capable of closing the deal? BYU’s reputation on the field matters little, but the question is this: Is BYU seedy enough in the right places?
The Big 12’s athletic directors, coaches and presidents met last week and were presented with data from Navigate Research, a company tasked with simulating the benefits of potential expansion. The data showed that the Big 12 could increase its likelihood of reaching the college football playoff by 10-15 percent by adding two teams to its 10-team roster and playing a conference championship game.
Since the original string of conference realignment in 2010, BYU has found itself among the leading candidates to benefit from future conference expansion, after leaving the Mountain West Conference to become and independent.
While it’s hard to argue with BYU’s case for candidacy on the field, has it done enough behind the scenes to earn a spot? Are the Cougars willing to do what it takes behind the scenes to become the newest member of the Big 12?
Cincinnati, one of the leading candidates to join the Big 12, has a stellar relationship with one of the power brokers in the Big 12 in Oklahoma. The presidents of both schools, Santa Ono of Cincinnati, and David Boren of Oklahoma apparently became friends over a public gathering in Washington, D.C., in 2014. Boren has since pledged his support for Cincinnati as an expansion candidate.
Boren is one of three members of a subcommittee tasked with exploring expansion options for the Big 12, teamed with West Virginia President Gordon Gee and Baylor President Ken Starr.If these names sound familiar, they should be.
Boren was a former vice presidential hopeful for independent candidate Ross Perot, served as the governor of the state of Oklahoma from 1975-1979, and then as a senator for the state from 1979-1994. Boren served as the chairperson for the Senate’s Intelligence Committee under presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Starr served on the federal Court of Appeals, as well as a three-judge panel tasked with investigating Clinton’s ties to real estate investments, later known as the Whitewater Scandal, and is responsible for the Starr Report that alleged Clinton perjured himself regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
In other words, those assigned to explore college football expansion aren’t simply university academia, or casual sports fans, they’re professional politicians, who appear to be brokering deals like politicians.
But it isn’t just those supporting expansion who are playing the political game.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, for the Big 12 to expand, it would require eight of 10 members to support conference growth. It is believed that while there are seven schools on board, with the three holdouts being Texas, Texas Tech and TCU.
If expansion fails to materialize, it may have Texas to blame. According to the Enquirer, Texas Tech follows the lead of Texas, both being public institutions with a partnership dating back to 1956. While TCU is indebted to Texas for getting it into the Big 12 in 2010.
In a 2014 article from CBS Sports college football writer Dennis Dodd, TCU was left scrambling after its original expansion partner, the Big East was decimated by the departures of Pittsburgh and Syracuse. TCU Athletic Director Chris Del Conte set up an impromptu meeting with legendary Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds in an effort to secure an invite to the Big 12. Del Conte, armed with notebooks of material evidence to show the value of adding TCU, reportedly convinced Dodds to include TCU in conference expansion over a five-hour drinking session without ever looking at the empirical data.
TCU’s move to the Big 12 remained difficult, having to pay the Big East $5 million to settle a lawsuit after departing the conference despite never playing a game as an athletic member.
The Big East further went on to sue West Virginia in an attempt to slow the conference realignment process, with the Mountaineers later joining the Big 12. The Pittsburgh Panthers sued the Big East to expedite their exodus to the ACC.
According to a CBS article filed Monday, Dodd says infighting remains at Oklahoma regarding expansion, as several members of the school’s board of regents oppose expansion. The board members include Max Weitzenhoffer, an award-winning Broadway and Theater Producer whose works include "Dracula" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," and Clay Bennett, the owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who famously purchased the franchise under the condition that he’d keep the team in Seattle but rapidly relocated the team to Oklahoma just two years after completing the purchase.
Among this cast of characters and plot twists, the only thing missing appears to be Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood negotiating conference expansion in "House of Cards."
It is hard to imagine BYU President Kevin J Worthen, or Athletic Director Tom Holmoe bargaining for the Cougars' inclusion with the Big 12’s decision-makers over a malt scotch.
BYU athletics is known for a lot of things but negotiating in smoke-filled rooms, discussing anything from the Whitewater Scandal, to Lewinsky, to the vice presidential vetting process, and blood-sucking broadway musicals might not be their forte. If they can’t find their place at the table of the conference’s backroom dealmakers, they might not find their way into the conference.
