The frequency of games at Orlando is low, but they’re in the same league, will have interest in the other B12 games, etc.
This season’s game is a potential trap. If we’re in a position for that game to have importance beyond that date… mission accomplished.
We can only do what we can do.
I’d keep an eye out on the bay area, both Stanford and Cal, and keeping our hand in that recruiting market. I could see one or both of those schools bailing out of P5 football this decade… or be the leaders trying to pull western football back together.
(Imagine being a Cal fan, where the nearest non-rival game is in Texas, and everything else is 3 time zones away. Among the three bastardized situations where PAC schools went, we got the most compact scenario… which is nuts.)
Media landscape changing/deteriorating quickly, 3 horizontally striped conferences of western teams, seriously struggling fan interest at Stanford and UCLA… what schools will survive this period to be in a position to either jump up to P2 or be part of a re-org out West?
My point still stands. Syracuse is a great University, a dump of a town. lol
As everyone below points out. It’s one freaking game every four years. lol Being in California does make more sense. Even though I am from California I travel the country often and find getting out of the bubble is better than staying in the metros of America. In the end, it’s all subjective. If you think a game vs Cal and Stanford is much more fun so be it.
I hope the feelings about the B12 is localized to the few on this board and not the Utah fanship at-large. We were thrown a lifeline (even if only short-term) as well as a full share of $$ that the previous group didn’t enjoy, and it seems like we come across as ungrateful d-bags. There are some good football matchups in the new conference (TCU, BYU, OSU, KSU) and the basketball atmosphere is out of this world. I’m generally speaking a glass half-full guy though.
I agree. I wish that we had ended up in the BIG. We didn’t, let’s be content that we have a home, even if potentially temporary. Let’s make the best of the situation, be gracious members of the Big XII, be gracious hosts with teams coming to Salt Lake, and be the the gracious visitor while on the road.
It’s ok to be disappointed. It’s not ok to be dickish about it all. Let’s not be the fanbase that everyone hates. Let’s leave that to BYU.
I hope that our athletics do well across the board in the Big XII. At least in football, gymnastics, and women’s BBall I expect to do extremely well.
Let’s see how this all plays out, and be content, if not happy that we have a home.
Knowing this is a football thread, where we should be able to do ‘well’, MBB will be really tough, WBB should be fine to compete. Gymnastics will dominate (9 Denver, 22 Iowa St., 27 BYU, 52 WVU - current rankings). Iowa St. is over a point lower average score. Of course, gym measures success on national finals, not conference championships.
It’s a really poor WBB conference. We’re going from hands-down the ‘best’ conference to a realllly bad one. The only thing that has made it somewhat respectable year after year is TX and OU, who of course are leaving. SOS takes an instant major hit and it’s going to be tough to maintain recruiting at the current level. Couple that with 2,000 mile road trips. Sigh.
I’m just not excited about playing UCF. I think it’ll be OK to be in the B12. There’s no way it’ll be as fun for me, having lived over half my life on the West Coast. But I don’t think we are too good for the B12 (that’s a dangerous way to think), and I’m really looking forward to seeing how we do in that conference. As a diehard Utes fan I fervently hope we do very, very well.
@boyaremyarmstired has already pointed out Baylor, but Kansas St has a really good WBB team (currently ranked 8th) and program. Let’s also not forget that Baylor (currently ranked 18th) beat the Utes WBB this season (November), with Palmer and Kneepkens playing.
What the B12 doesn’t have is depth, the way the PAC is deep. But, I wouldn’t say the B12 is “bad”.
…and depth is one of my main criteria for conference strength, especially if I’m comparing to the Pac-12 which is and has been just so solid top to bottom. Baylor is a top notch program, and KSU has a phenomenal team this year. But the conference as a whole, particularly without TX and OU, is a massive drop. And hard for me to call it anything but bad, by power conf standards.
BYU women hoops has been respectable in recent years and is dead last in the Big12 right now. A bit easier for our women next year, but will face some decent teams there.
byu-p was “respectable” against WCC competition, while we’re coming in from the PAC. There’s very little correlation between the two situations. The competition for us will be a massive dropoff, while for them it was a pretty big step up.
my displeasure about Utah joining the Big XII has very little to do with the association
with new schools and everything to do with the untenable state of college sports. We just watched a conference with 100+ years of history collapse. It seems like domino one, with more to follow.
I hope the U can continue to excel academically and athletically like we did in the PAC12, but I’m skeptical. Its hard to be excited about what the future holds when the future seems so shaky.
