Block U, a Utah Utes community

Yet another school has said no to joining the Big East; this time it's Brigham Young University. The two sides had been talking for weeks, but when the issue of TV rights for football games arose, BYU wanted to retain the rights for its home football games, and the Big East would not allow that. Again, the conference and its expansion plans are back to square one.

Interesting read here. TCU got the Big 12 invite partly because ABC/ESPN and Fox didn't like BYU's LDS regulations, demands and BYUtv network.

This replaces/extends a 4-year contract they already had in place. The 12 year series will begin next season, with Boise receiving the first home game. There is a buy-out, but there are stipulations for that being waived if circumstances (i.e. conference realignment) dictate. A full schedule with dates can be found via the link.

SBNation's own Bill Connelly previews this years BYU Cougars football program while showing the improvement the team made during the back half of last season and how that should transfer over to this season. He also mentions how Independence will greatly help BYU.

I don't want to trash this quote to much but I doubt he ends up coming to BSU anyways. "At Boise, you really have to really go up to people and talk to them to get to know them, but the whole football program up there is pretty good. The football program might have surpassed BYU this past year a little, but that's the only thing they've really got on them a little bit. Their whole record this past year is really the only thing." MIGHT have surpassed BYU this past year A LITTLE??? BSU surpassed BYU many many years ago when we handed them 2 losses in back to back seasons. I think the zoobies brainwashed him. If he chooses BYU (Which sounds like his best choice) he'll get to play against current teammate Donte Deayon for four years as they'll come in right as our 4 game home and home series with the Cougars begins which is pretty cool. He seems like a good kid but the fact he thinks we barely surpassed BYU a little last year would concern me if he decides to be a Bronco...

If you havn't read Greg Wrubell's take on the new Pac12 tv deal and what that means for BYU vs. Utah going forward, READ IT NOW! I think he is spot on in his analysis here.

Dawg Sports the SB Nation Georgia Bulldog site picked the Wyoming BYU game as it's weekly game of disinterest. Classy move SEC. Wyoming's near victory over Air Force is overlooked. There are way worse games out there such as 2-4 Western Michigan at 0-7 Akron or 0-6 Western Kentucky at 2-4 UL Lafeyette. Maybe he just got tired of picking on Sun Belt teams.

I mean, third string quarterback in the NFL is somethin', right?

If y'all would be interested to drop by the Dawgpound and offer your thoughts and perspective on the Huskies-(other) Cougars game that will open our season this fall, we'd appreciate it. As John suggests, I think this will be a game of almost as much interest to y'all as to us.

Obviously big for the conference. This is only the third time GameDay has been to a Mountain West stadium (Air Force a few years ago, Utah in 2004 and now this...)