Tradition, Spirit, Honor

So this week has been a big one for BYU Athletics. If you haven't heard the news, BYU has declared its independence...in football. Starting fall 2011 BYU Football will be an independent, or not tied to any conference (one of 4 in the country - Notre Dame, Army, Navy being the others). They made this decision for several reasons, number 1 being exposure. BYU and the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints wish for BYU sports to be seen around the country. The Mtn TV network was simply not getting it done. BYU's other sports will play in the WCC (West Coast Conference) which contains other private religious universities. There have been many articles written about it. Here is just one.

The press conference was pretty cool for a BYU sports geek like me. ESPN (who BYU signed a big contract with) had the Vice President of Programming there explaining why they would reach out and sign a big contract to televise BYU's home football games.

My sister posted a video that was shown before the conference and I think you should take a look at it if you haven't seen it. You can find it HERE.

There are a few amazing videos that I have seen on BYUtv.org. I thought I'd link to a few of them. These 3 are my favorite: Click on the sports extras tab.

WE ARE BYU

FOOTBALL 2010

BYU FOOTBALL HISTORY

Some of the shots in the first and last video overlap but honestly, I could (and did) hook these up to our new TV and watch them over and again.

Also, BYU won a hard-fought game against the University of Washington on Saturday in Provo. I really wish I could have been there but was cheering hard for the Cougars here in Mississippi.