(08-19-2015 06:23 PM)stever20 Wrote: I wonder if it might be that the WCC doesn't want it.
The WCC wants to keep BYU in any, shape or form. It's a massive revenue and exposure boost to have them in the league. They have absolutely no leverage whatsoever in their relations with BYU - the Cougars hold all the power there (just as Notre Dame had similar power in its relations with the old Big East, despite other old Big East fans trying to claim otherwise).
BYU would also take a football-only invite to a power conference immediately.
As as result, this statement is 100% about the BYU AD telling the school's fans that the power conferences (and specifically the Big 12) are NOT going to offer any type of football-only membership, so there's no use in hoping for that type of outcome (which is what a lot of fans have been trying to advocate). It's going to be all-or-nothing in terms of a P5 invite.
By the same token, I don't think this statement has ANYTHING to do with BYU being more open to joining to a G5 league, whether it's the AAC or MWC. BYU's goal is obviously to land in a power conference, but barring that scenario, independence is still vastly preferable to being in a G5 league for branding purposes. BYU has the SEC, Big Ten and ACC explicitly on-the-record that they are considered to be a "power" opponent, which is huge from a perception standpoint.
To that end, the perception standpoint is MUCH more important than any G5 access bowl slot. From a local perspective, BYU being considered to be "lesser" than Utah is COMPLETELY unacceptable to their leadership. Independence allows BYU to continue to argue that they are a "special" school that is a power school even though it doesn't have power conference membership, whereas being in a G5 league structurally makes them inferior to Utah (which is a non-starter). I can't emphasize this enough. BEING IN A G5 LEAGUE MEANS BYU ADMITS THEY ARE INFERIOR TO UTAH, WHICH CANNOT HAPPEN WHEN YOU RUN THAT SCHOOL. G5 conferences have about as much of a shot of adding BYU as they do at adding Notre Dame... meaning that they have no chance at all.
My eyes roll every time I see any type of proposal that has (a) BYU joining a G5 conference as a full member or (b) Notre Dame joining any type of conference as a full member. Those are completely pointless exercises on par with proposing that Ohio State leave the Big Ten or Alabama leave the SEC (and that's saying something in the speculative world of a conference realignment board).