Day One - Football Independence

PROVO, Utah - BYU officially became a Football Bowl Subdivision Independent program today. The move marks the first time in program history that the Cougars will compete without a conference. BYU most recently competed in the Mountain West Conference for the past 12 seasons.

BYU becomes the fourth independent team in the FBS, joining Army, Navy and Notre Dame.

“After years of consideration, we determined that there is no time like the present to chart a path towards independence in football,” said BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe when the announcement was made last September. “Much has been discussed about why we’ve been studying a change in our conference affiliation. It comes down to two pillars – access and exposure. Being independent increases our access to our national following of fans.”

Beginning this fall, every BYU home football game will be televised to a live national audience on the ESPN family of networks or BYUtv. Additionally, BYU’s national fan base will be able to view same-day rebroadcasts on BYUtv of every home game and any away game to which ESPN has rights through conference agreements with the host team.

"I love the idea of being more visible," said BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall. "It's a national schedule, basically East Coast to West Coast. We're trying to get as many quality opponents from as many parts of the country that we can get to continue to promote our program and generate excitement for the teams we're playing. That's what's fun now, the idea of who you would like to play and develop some natural rivalries and learn about different parts of the country. The chance to have choices like that, I'm excited about it."

Working with ESPN has already helped in scheduling high-profile opponents this season and in the future.

In addition to BYU’s 2011 opponents, the Cougars have scheduled future games with Notre Dame, Texas, Georgia Tech, Boise State, Oregon State, West Virginia, Hawai’i, UCF and Utah, among others.

"Our goal is simply to find the most exposure for BYU football that we possibly can,” said Dave Brown, ESPN's vice president of programming and acquisition. “That's part of our partnership. Whether it comes from promotion, carrying the games, promoting the games and producing the games and giving them a first-class production, we put it out there and provide them with the best possible platforms for exposure that we can — and they take it from there."