Love ’em or loathe ’em, BYU Cougars are good for business
It has been said the best way to make friends, or keep them, is to refrain from discussing politics or religion.
In Las Vegas, I also would add Brigham Young sports to any list of polarizing topics.
In Las Vegas, one either loves the Cougars or loathes them.
It's like in Indiana, where one either loves Notre Dame or loathes it, with the following asterisk: If one follows Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish aren't playing Southern Cal, one can go to church on Saturday and it counts for Sunday.
I love and loathe BYU sports: I loved how people got all lathered up when the Cougars came to town; I loathe that it no longer happens.
Love 'em or loathe 'em, BYU was good for business, and these conference shuffles and shake-ups are not. Not if the only option is to play a conference game against Marshall.
When Utah bolted for the new Pac-12 and BYU declared its football independence, the Mountain West as we knew it ceased to exist. And that was before Texas Christian said it would leave, before Boise State came and went, before San Diego State said sayonara, before Texas told the Kansas schools they would do as they were told.
That also was before most said BYU would rue the day it declared its football independence, because who was left for the Cougars to play?
Despite the short notice, BYU managed to cobble together a schedule. It played Mississippi and Texas and Utah and Central Florida and Utah State and San Jose State. It played Oregon State and Idaho State and TCU and Idaho and New Mexico State and Hawaii. And Tulsa, in the Armed Forces Bowl.
The Cougars did not play Southern Utah.
People up there weren't too happy about playing Idaho and New Mexico State at night in November, but at least you could watch on ESPN. In fact, you could watch 10 of BYU's 13 games on the ESPN family of networks, and everybody knows how important family is to BYU.
Bronco Mendenhall, the BYU coach, always will be one of my heroes. During the Cougars' 46th or 47th consecutive appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, it was he who remarked that "at least we get a chance to play on ESPN again," or something to that effect, and it seemed to get the ball of criticism rolling.
Today, everybody blasts the Mountain West's TV deal with the Wayne's World Network; back then, when Mendenhall had the gumption to say it publicly, it was like barfing up Craig Thompson's Kool-Aid on the 50-yard line.
BYU's football schedule probably will get better. Its first eight games in 2012 are against Washington State, Weber State, Utah, Boise State, Hawaii, Utah State, Oregon State and Notre Dame. Its last five games are against TBA, TBA, TBA, TBA and TBA -- dates for games against Georgia Tech, San Jose State, New Mexico State and Idaho have yet to be determined.
"If there's anything negative, it would be the difficulty of late-season scheduling," Mendenhall told Salt Lake City's Deseret News. "But the farther out we go, the more it seems that teams are willing to do that. It's just that the first year with the shortened window, it was hard."
This is where there could be a window of opportunity for UNLV.
The Rebels would have to improve, because in the UNLV football program's current state, BYU would be better off playing Southern Utah or the prison guards from "The Longest Yard." Rebels coach Bobby Hauck supposedly wants to play cupcakes and Twinkies, but losing to Southern Utah was like taking a fruit pie in the face.
This season, BYU played Hawaii on Dec. 3 in Honolulu; next year the teams will play on Sept. 29 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood has told me he would love to play BYU (he's a BYU grad), because, like scheduling Hawaii or one of the Kardashians, it's good for business. In the years Hawaii plays in Provo, Utah, there might be an opportunity to schedule BYU after the conference season, on Army-Navy weekend in December.
Of course, it's also conceivable the Mountain West will merge with Conference USA, and that UNLV will be playing Marshall that weekend for a berth in the Argyle Sock Bowl.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.
