Do you think the Ute’s record would be thought of more highly thiis year if they had replaced the victory over BYU with a win over one of these P5 teams with current 7 win 4 loss record?
Iowa State
Kansas State
Indiana
TAMU
Louisville
Pitt
It’s weird for State Legislatures to demand a P5 play an independent. It’s not like they mandate Utah State to be on your schedule. Why and how does a Private handcuff a public institution to play it?
At least they didn’t pull a Baylor, like the Texas legislature (or was it the governor) insisting they be included in the Big-some-number.
This is not unusual.
USC is a private university that wields the most power in the P12. Some Utah fans are just a bit sensitive about all things BYU/LDS. Also not unusual.
Anyway, to answer OP’s question… no, I don’t think a win over any of those teams would look any better this year than the BYU win. They WOULD look better than the wins over Pocatello State or NIU though.
Baylor was part of the SWC in the early 1900s. They were a good to great program. They’ve always been a bigger conference. They, unlike SMU & TCU, have always been a higher tier of Texas football. TCU obviously got into the Big 12 after years of work. I think comparing BYU to either Baylor or TCU is wrong. They are closer to be a SMU except SMU is a Top 25 team.
BYU doesn’t have a national brand. BYU joins a P5 then maybe they can talk but right now they are Liberty, New Mexico level. Not Utah or any other P5 level.
All the beauty pageant arguments magically drift away if we beat 8-4 USC
True. That said, in all of the University of Florida’s history they have ZERO undefeated seasons. In fact, only 4 of the last 13 went undefeated. It’s why the non-conference is a big deal.
I’d rather not play NIU or Idaho State. This isn’t the best year for you to argue that we shouldn’t play BYU when they are the best team on our OOC schedule this season. That being said, I’d prefer our OOC schedule be:
P5 team from the South/Texas
BYU or Utah State Rotating
FCS from Big Sky, ideally Weber State or Southern Utah
Currently we use losses to judge the best teams. We need to simply count quality wins to rank teams. Doing so, 9 quality wins beat 8 creating a great incentive to play more conference games and better OOC games. If you must keep the preseason lower level games, count the best 10 games played and let the others be preseason.
What if Utah scheduled three P5 schools to start the year? Win or lose, Utah can still win the PAC-12 and go to a Rose Bowl. But, if Utah beat all three, and win the PAC-12, then there’s less of a question whether Utah is worthy of a top four ranking, right?
I’m guessing that if Utah has a difficult out of conference series, where they lose every game, then the hangover could affect conference play. But, even if that happened, at least Utah would be playing in front of more eyes across the country. This likely would create brand recognition for upcoming years. Therefore, when Utah is in a similar position as it is today, we’d be a more recognizable brand.
At the end of the day, I see less downside playing P-5 teams exclusively than piling on a bunch of nobodies for feel-good wins.
Actually, the legislature cannot require Utah play the private school down south.
They can require Utah play USU. If there is an FCS mandate, they could require Utah to alternate play against Weber and SUU.
It has to do with control of the contract. The state indirectly controls both sides of the contract with those schools. The legislature does not control TDS’s contracts.