A rumor has been slowly building over the past month or so amongst some out West that BYU was giving strong consideration to leaving the Mountain West Conference and making a go at it as a football independent.
Then this evening and well into the night, all conference hell is breaking loose yet again.
It started with Jeff Goodman of FOX Sports.com, who tweeted earlier Tuesday that he’s “hearing from multiple sources there’s a strong possibility that BYU goes to the WAC in hoop and becomes independent in football.”
A couple of hours later, however, came by far the strongest indication that something might indeed be in the works. According to our buddy SportsByBrooks.com, and citing a Salt Lake media source, BYU is seriously indeed considering a move to football independence.
As far as a timetable is concerned for any announcement if the school is indeed this far down the independent path, one source tells Brooks that it will take place no later than Sept. 1, while another indicated that a decision could come as early as Friday.
The MWC, Brooks reports, is well aware of BYU’s interest in leaving the league and “is feverishly pondering concessions to keep the Cougars.” The conference has already lost Utah in the last two months; losing yet another staple of the league would be a significant blow to a conference that, with the addition of Boise State, seemed to be on the verge of grabbing an automatic BcS bid in just a couple of years.
With Utah and BYU gone? That would likely be the death knell for that postseason development.
